5 Simple movement activities to promote memory skills
1. Learn alphabet using song, movement and gesture
2. Use specific song and movements for tasks like lining up, cleaning up, locomoting
3. Incorporate movement games that use the same specific motions and gestures each time
4. Assign a short movement pattern using objects as reference points – “round like the sun” – after learning pattern, have children draw objects on large piece of paper.
5. Help children design their own movement chants
To “Pin down” a thought, there must be movement. Hannaford, Carla. Smart Moves, Why Learning Is Not All In Your head. 1995, 2005 Utah Great River Books
When we include movement in the learning process, we are helping the brain retain and encode information.
In addition to intellectually, movement provides the opportunity for children to learn on multiple levels, through multiple sensory mediums, using their experiences as a foundation for knowledge.
Research conducted by the National Institute of Health (2012) was based on the theories that, a) Performed actions involve much richer and elaborative representations than verbal phrases, and b) enacted actions engage the motor system where as other methods of encoding do not.
Children are moving creatures. Incorporating movement into their lessons makes their classroom experience richer, more meaningful and helps develop recall automaticity.
We are asking our students to acquire greater and greater intellectual skills at earlier and earlier developmental states. One way to help with these skill developments is through movement – at the very least we’ll be speaking their language!
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