Children playing on slide, learning sequence play.

When my kids were in grade school I taught workshops to classroom teachers on movement as a way of learning for K-3. Kids love to move. Not only is this a fun way to learn, but specific movements organize the brain for good attention. I believe that children have the right to learn through movement, and that many academic concepts can be learned well through movement. For example, for language arts, children can learn narrative sequences of beginning, middle and end as they carry out or make up movement phrases.

As far as I can tell, most teacher training programs provide no training on how to use movement as a learning method. In the education world, most kinesthetic learning begins and ends with hand manipulatives. The main movement opportunities for children in a school day are typically PE class and recess if children are lucky, walking to specialty classes like art and music, and, in some settings, moving from station to station.

To change the culture of K-5 education we would need a longer-term immersion for teachers incorporating their own movement (play, not just exercise!); many, many experiences of learning while moving; reflective practices; and lesson planning for linking movement with academic concepts.

Schools and teachers are under enormous pressure to move academic skills into younger & younger years. Three-year-olds are being asked to sit at tables to learn their ABCs and numbers. Far more important is to have children learn these concepts through movement play, moving their whole bodies. Sally Goddard Blythe’s research on neurology of learning readiness concludes that movement and balancing activities are the most important activities for learning readiness.