Shining Stars Early Childhood Center is excited to present the second annual Reach for the Stars! Our goal is to improve the quality of the playground in order to give students meaningful experiences as they develop their gross motor skills. Shining Stars Early Childhood Center provides special education services to students age 3 to 5 with significant developmental delays.

All proceeds from the event will be donated to Shining Stars Early Childhood Center to make purchases and improvements to their playground. Gross motor skills are the skills needed to control the large muscles of the body in a controlled and coordinated way. The window to develop gross motor skills is a relatively narrow one, therefore it is crucial to provide opportunities for these skills to develop. Gross motor skills begin developing at birth with the most critical time for development occurring between eighteen (1.5 years) and sixty months (5 years) of age. According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children, some children entering kindergarten may exhibit developmental delays in gross motor skills if they do not have sufficient opportunities to learn and practice these active skills during early childhood. Research also supports that children who engage in physical activity regularly have increased attention spans which are necessary for successful academic participation in school settings.