Adding Movement to Your Early Childhood Classroom

13th April, 2011 - Posted by - No Comments

In a world of high stakes testing and global competition for jobs, we need to help our students develop strong problem solving and and critical thinking skills. As early childhood educators, you play an integral part in setting the foundation for developing our future leaders.

One great way to help achieve this goal is by integrating movement across your curriculum. As studies show us, one of the best ways to learn is by doing! Below are some suggested strategies and examples to help you integrate movement into your lesson plans and daily classroom activities.

Have a Movement Integration Plan

Planning how you will incorporate active play and movement into activities and lesson plans can be a very useful strategy for educators. Need a little inspiration? Check out our form to help get you started. You can modify the form to fit your needs. Click on the link below to download the form.

Movement Integration Plan

Alphabet Workout

I use movement, music and visual aids, from programs such as “Alphabet Workout”, to assist students in learning sounds. This program teaches letter and word sounds through various motor movements. It also incorporates visuals and comes with a workbook for older students. You can also use simple and inexpensive things like scarves to enhance the movement experience and work on creating shapes and letters as you move.

Math Tag

In Math Tag, students pair off and each pair shakes one hand three times. On the third shake, they put out as many fingers on that hand as they want. Both partners add the total number of fingers together. Whoever shouts out the total first flees as the other partner chases. Once the fleeing partner is tagged, the partners repeat the activity several times. You may need to simplify this for your classroom, but the concept can be used in a variety of ways.

Other Ideas

Some other ideas for integrating subject areas into movement activities are listed below. Get creative!

Have the students get up and move (march, stand on tip-toes, hopping on one foot, etc. ) when they are learning something new. Movement and 5 minute brain breaks helps the brain form new connections that result in learning!
Have students do an obstacle course based on a story you have read (Reading).
Put on a rhythm and dance show (Music).
Have students complete drawings of a skill learned as an assessment (Art).
Challenge students to participate in teamwork challenges (Problem Solving). Examples include building a fort, making a cardboard box village or race care, etc.
Check out the HSBS On Demand webinar series, Movement Across the Curriculum!

Our call to action is to help our students be ready for the future by integrating movement across the curriculum today!

Blogger Bio: Charles Silberman, MS, is a physical education teacher from Maryland who believes in a holistic approach to education that involves the growth of the whole child. He is passionate about movement and physical activity, and enjoys teaching youth of all ages. You can learn more about Charles’s work at http://www.charlesssilberman.com, and follow him on Twitter@ThePeGuy.