A recent document, Active Start: Physical Activity for Children Birth to Five (2001), published by NASPE emphasizes the importance of young children engaging in physical activity and skill development. One of the guidelines within Active Start proposes that preschoolers should develop competence in fundamental motor skills prior to starting school since these skills are the building blocks for more complex movement tasks (Seefelt & Haubenstricker, 1982). The primary purpose of this study was to determine the effects of physical activity and skill development pre-school program would have on motor skill performance. Thirteen children, ages 3-5 years, were provided a program 30 minutes per week for 10 weeks. Each program consisted of a warm up and warm down activity as well as activities incorporating motor skill development and vigorous physical activity. Each participant was asked to perform the locomotor subscale of the Test of Gross Motor Development (Ulrich, 2000) prior to and following the program. A comparison group of 28 children, who were not provided the program, were assessed on the TGMD prior to and following a 10 week period. A univariate ANOVA was conducted to determine the changes in the TGMD locomotor percentiles for both the children receiving the program and for the comparison group. The results indicated that there was a significant group x pre- post-program interaction, F(1-39)=36.134, p<.001. The program group (M=26%, SD=22.64) did not differ significantly from the comparison group (M=25.64%, SD=21.80) prior to the intervention. However, the group of children who received the program (M=74.08%, SD=19.35) did perform significantly better than the comparison group (M=26.04%, SD=19.08) after the 10 week period. Further, the intervention group significantly improved in locomotor performance from the beginning of the program to the end, while the comparison group failed to demonstrated significant change. These findings suggest that the physical activity and skill development pre-school program had a dramatic influence on the participants' locomotor skill performance and that minimal instructional time resulted in significant change. The results of the comparison group suggests that children who do not experience programs that emphasize physical activity and motor skill development may not develop their locomotor skills prior to starting school. Keyword(s): early childhood, physical activity, play