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Adding in Movement

4 ways to add movement in the classroom
I’m so excited to participate in the Bright Ideas Blog Hop.   The posts in this series all feature no strings attached, free ideas to use in your classroom.  No sign ups, no products- just great ideas.
Today I’m sharing 4 ways I’ve incorporated movement, or kinesthetic techniques, into my teaching.  Some I use regularly with my current 3rd graders, and some I’ve used with intervention students in the past.

Stand Up, Sit Down is one I still use regularly in my classroom.  Basically, I tell students two different topics and that they’ll sit for one and stand for another.  This gets them up and moving, is a low-stress review, and is also a quick time filler.  I’ve used it to review parts of speech like nouns and verbs or adjectives and nouns.  I’ve used it to review odd and even.  It’s basically pretty open to anything you can fit into two categories.  I like that it gets my unconfident students involved because they can just look around for assistance.  I also often repeat what it is and the category it is as I explain it to students.  It’s an easy way to get their blood flowing, up and out of their seats, but still keeping them contained.

 

Number Rounds is a math twist on the popular Sparkle game.  I use it to review mentally adding 10, 100 or multiples of them to any number.  My students struggle with adding 10 to a number like 851, especially when they’re the one that has to come up with 901.  To play, I start with a number and a rule: Add 10 to each number starting at 51.  Every time a student passes a new hundred, they sit down.  Eventually you get all the way around the circle and the last one standing is the winner.  This is Hard, with a capital H, for many of my students but gives them great practice and builds their number sense.  It’s not the most movement based activity, but it gets the kids out of their seats which is important to them.

Forward, Backward is an idea I do when my students are in line.  It’s an effort to keep them quiet and paying attention.  Again, their forward and backward movements match my two categories.  Step forward if the number is even, step backward if the number is odd.  Step forward if the equation is true, step backward if the equation is false.  I just recently started trying this out, but I love that it gets them up and moving.  It’s also a great way to keep them busy for 90 seconds while you’re waiting in the hallway for something.

 

Scoot is not a new idea for many people, but I thought I’d include it just in case.  If you aren’t familiar, Scoot is done by placing cards of some sort on student desks.  They start on their own.  When they finish, or when you shout Scoot, students move to the next seat and complete the task that’s there.  In order for it to work, you need at least enough cards as students.  I like to add in a couple different spaces just to help spread kids out.

I hope I was able to give you a few new movement ideas that you can implement in your classroom!  This has really helped me with my rambunctious boys!  I’d love for you to leave a comment if you have other great ideas on how to add movement into your classroom.  You can use my image below to follow me in different ways to see more of my posts if you enjoyed this one.

4 ways to add movement in the classroom

Up next in the hop is Heather from 2 Brainy Apples.  She’s posting on a cool hands-on science activity.  To go see her post, click here.

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