Your students need movement breaks in the classroom. Truth be told, you do too. Let’s look at how you can add more movement into your day in and out of the classroom to benefit you and your students.
Why is this so important?
For starters, movement is good for our physical health. Beyond that, movement in the classroom helps us:
- Reduce stress and anxiety
- Enhance overall well-being
- Improve focus, memory, and retention
Notice that last one. This isn’t just another thing to fit into your day. Movement breaks help students learn.
And the benefits aren’t just for students. You can benefit from movement in the classroom (and out of it). Help yourself reduce stress and improve health by moving with your students and finding ways to add movement outside of school too.
5 creative ways to make movement part of classroom routines
Even knowing the benefits, seeing how to fit more movement into your day can be hard. It might help to know that small bursts of movement can have big benefits, and you can sprinkle them throughout the day.
Try these ideas for more movement in the classroom:
1. Start the day with a stretch. Have students stand up and stretch before sitting down to their desks. Have them stretch up and out and down. They can move arms in circles, and then reach around to give themselves a hug.
2. Move like a … When transitioning between activities, especially ones requiring movement around the classroom space, have students hop like a bunny, skip, or wiggle to the new space.
3. Do a dance break. If energy is lagging, pop on a song and have students get up and dance until the music stops.
4. Use movement based learning. You can add movement to your lessons. For example, you can:
- have students move words from one wall to the meaning on another wall
- dribble a ball along letters you have written in chalk on the playground or taped on the floor
- use skip counting as they skip rope or volley a tennis ball.
- Take steps to demonstrate the answer to a mental math problem (for example, if you say 4 x 3, students would take 12 steps).
5. Take a brain break. When you notice your class is losing focus or energy, take a brain break — or build them in to low energy points of the day or after high concentration activities. Try a 5-4-3-2-1 sequence (such as 5 jumping jacks, 4 bunny hops, 3 bows to your neighbor, 2 circuits of walking the room, and 1 giant cheer when you are done).
Use motion to help get kids energized, engaged and focused throughout the day.
Get more ideas for brain breaks and other movement breaks in the classroom with the FREE Classroom Game Cheat-Sheets:
4 simple ways to add movement to your personal routine
And what about you? You may feel like you never sit down, but are you moving? Adding movement to your day can decrease stress, help your health, and be a good example for your students.
Try these ideas for your teacher’s fitness plan:
- Move when your students move. When you bring movement to the classroom, do the movements too, whether it’s a 5-4-3-2-1 brain break or dancing it out. You can demonstrate appropriate movement while also getting a little activity yourself.
- Try walking meetings. Walking meetings get you moving — which can get ideas moving too. It’s not ideal for a group, but for individual meetings, they can be a good way to add movement to something you need to do anyway!
- Start an after school exercise group. Fitness can be more fun with others. Try a walking or jogging club, chipping in for a yoga or exercise class, or practicing a dance for a teacher flash mob.
- Pick quick transition activities. Take 5 minutes to stretch or dance off the day. Have a tough meeting? Take a minute to shake it off. Have something to celebrate? Jump 5 times with your hands in the air — you can do this at home, alone in your room, or with your class!
3 fun ways to use PE lesson plans to add movement in the classroom
Perhaps the most obvious place for movement in the classroom comes during PE. I hope you’re seeing that there are lots of ways to include movement in the classroom outside of PE, but I also want to offer support for PE.
Having solid PE lesson plans makes it easier to integrate structured physical activity into your day. You can even use some of them when you just need more movement.
Get kids moving in sports, including:
- Soccer
- Basketball
- Volleyball
- Tennis
- Baseball/Softball
- Gymnastics
- Hockey
- Ultimate Frisbee
Sports Fundamentals Lesson Plans makes it easy to teach the basics of these sports. Students who love a sport are more likely to stay active. Plus, sports foster teamwork and social skills.
But PE isn’t all sports — it’s also dance and games and basic fitness. For done for you lessons, including games that can be used outside of PE for classroom movement breaks, get your NO PREP Physical Education Lesson Plans. The Dance, Early Morning Fitness, and Game sections make great classroom movement activities in or out of PE class.
Get your ready to use lesson plans … and get moving!
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