Learning Through Movement

Kids Move = Kids Learn

This week we discussed "movement" and how it plays a role in our classrooms. The book discussed how vital movement is for children, especially for the younger ones. Movement enhances their memory and makes their learning more meaningful. Many schools are cutting recess time from their school day so that they can focus on academics. However, the research shows that students learn better when they have sufficient time to let their energy out. The book encouraged us to incorporate as much movement as possible in our classrooms.

Some questions we discussed included: 

With our busy schedule as teachers, how much freedom are we able to fit in to our lessons?

How can we be more intentional in applying these concepts such as freedom, movement, and choice into our daily teaching?
How do can we effectively foster the brains of these young children?
What is most important in our teaching?

We discussed how this type of teaching, project-based, would be easier if we had plenty of time, lots of resources, and more space. Kaila said it is hard to move around in her room because of the limited space and high number of students. Some practical things we discussed including in our teahcing include: doing movements to songs, doing motions to memory verses or to remember specific words, have students run at recess, take more brain breaks between activities, and simply "doing" instead of just "listening". We all agreed that this book reminds us of important concepts we should be incorporating in our classrooms; however, it is harder to carry out and know how to implement effectively.