Movement in the Classroom
First grade teacher and former Space Education professional Blaine Dunsmore provides us with her insight into movement’s role in engagement and motivation.
I was that child…the student that was looking for any excuse to get up out of my desk and move around the room. I would drop my pencil, ask to get water, or get up to throw away trash. I needed to be moving constantly. To this day, I still move my foot when I sit at a desk. I found it very hard to pay attention while sitting motionless at a desk. My childhood need for activity brought me to the idea of integrating more movement into my classroom. I have found that allowing students to move around the room has made a huge difference in their ability to retain information and stay on task. Movement is also beneficial to students because they need to be active in order to stay healthy. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC, 2015), the average child needs at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day. Students need to exercise in order to remain emotionally, mentally, and physically well. Here are some ways I have used movement in my classroom:
Classroom Set-Up
At the beginning of the school year, I set my classroom up to encourage movement. I kept supplies in one area of the room, textbooks on a shelf, independent reading book boxes in the library section, and work in progress binders in a separate corner. I wanted students to have to get up to retrieve different items they needed to do their work. I had my students keep very little in their desks, so they would get up and move during independent work times. When they completed all of their work, I also allowed them to take their book bins — which were collection of books they picked out from the class library — and find a quiet area where they would like to read. For our leveled reading group time, I set up tables all around the room, so students could take their books and move from station to station. Redesigning my classroom at the beginning of year increased the amount of exercise each student got each day.
Team-Building Exercises
Students need to feel like they are part of team, so I used team building exercises to incorporate movement in the classroom. Each day, our class has a student-led morning meeting where the student of the day is responsible for greeting everyone, marking the calendar, assigning jobs to other students, and saying the pledge. We have also played games, such as sports review games. First, the students are divided into teams. When the team gets a question right, one member is allowed to shoot a plastic ball at a trash can to gain their team a point. I also cut up words from a sentence and give out strips to students. I give the team one minute to put the sentence in order. They also have to be able to tell me what part of speech each word is, in the sentence, in order to receive a point. I have even used rope course activities in the classroom to encourage team-building.
Brain Breaks
In the classroom, I like to break up the lessons as much as possible, so the students are only sitting on the carpet or at their desks for 20 minutes at a time. I set a timer, so I can keep track of when we need a break. I use brain breaks to stimulate movement. I use a variety of websites to find these breaks. Some are educational and some are not. Overall, the brain breaks allow the students a moment to breathe and process the information we have just covered. I also use yoga stretches before tests to help calm anxiety. There are lots of great yoga videos for students to watch for a brain break. I am also thankful to have a school that values recess. Free play is proven to be one of the best brain breaks a child can have. We have two recesses in a day, so I use that time as a brain break as well!
Physical Responses/Rewards
At the beginning of the school, I like to ease my students into the idea of movement in the classroom, so we could set boundaries for what was acceptable movement in the classroom. I started out by having them clap every time we read or heard a vocabulary word. This helped them pay attention in stories because they were so eager to clap when we reached a recognizable word. I also used acting out plays in our Wonders book as a way for the students to move while reading. We have a talking ball that is thrown from one person to another to help each student know who has the right to talk during a discussion. As teachers, it is a never-ending cycle to come up with creative incentives to reward behavior in the classroom. I purchased a roll of raffle tickets and reward students with fun tickets when I see students showing good character. My students are allowed to cash in these fun tickets for prizes. My list of prizes is heavily weighted with incentives to move. These movement rewards include: writing on the whiteboard for 15 minutes, having a dance party with their classmates, extra recess, sitting in the teacher’s rolling chair, picking a brain break for the class, giving them a stress ball, etc. I have found that making movement a part of a reward system gets students excited about physical activity.
Flexible Seating
I am so excited to see flexible seating growing more popular in classrooms today. Flexible seating means allowing students an option of where they can sit and what they can sit on. For example, my class has exercise balls, chairs, standing desks, stools, and pillows for students to use in the classroom. In this day and age, students love having choices. When I finish with a whole group lesson and begin independent or partner practice time, I allow them to choose what seating option they would like to use. A group would go under their desks, some would use the exercise balls, others would use pillows, a group would choose to stand, and a few would choose to work at traditional desks with chairs or stools. My students enjoyed the exercise balls the most of all the seating options we had this year. I had them write papers on what they thought of the exercise balls and one wrote, “I like my exercise ball because it keeps me awake.” Another wrote, “ My exercise ball is cool because it helps me get energy.” The various flexible seating options in my classroom encouraged my students to move around instead of sitting still all day.
All in all, the movement I integrated into my classroom has proven very effective. If you have any questions about how to incorporate more movement into your class, please feel free to comment below. I also have a Pinterest board with ideas of how to get your students moving in the classroom.
Work Cited
How much physical activity do children need? (2015, June 04). Retrieved July 07, 2016, from http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/children/
Blaine Dunsmore has been working in the education field since 2004 as a tutor, mentor, curriculum writer and educator. She obtained her Bachelors Degree at Freed-Hardeman University and Masters of Education at Concordia University. Upon completing her Bachelors, she taught English as a Second Language in Berlin, Germany and Rome, Italy. In 2015, she worked at Space Academy for Educators, where she taught teachers ways to implement Space Education into their classrooms. Currently, she is working as a multi-subject first grade teacher at Oakridge Private School in Orange, California.
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