We have to lay it out: the case for structured play during the school day Unstructured play, aka recess, is considered far more sexy than structured play, aka PE. Of late, recess is the darling of play advocates who point to its developmental necessity. If you googled: “How much time do children spend in [...]
We all know the five senses we learned in grade school: Sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch. Each of these works together to help our brains understand and interpret our world. Whether it is the taste of a tart lemon, the feeling of mud between our fingers, or the smell of fresh mint, our brains [...]
We talk about moving a lot. We talk about physicality a lot. And sometimes, when we train teachers or speak at conferences, people don’t hear “moving” or “physicality” they hear “sports.” It is important to understand that what we do is not about sport. Sport is great, but it isn’t for everybody. However, physical [...]
We beg all parents, particularly those with children under the age of 10, to please not fall into the trap of believing children of this age need personal smart technology. Personal smart technology (smartphones, tablets) is not beneficial to growing brains and is more harmful than anything else. Let me repeat: Personal smart technology [...]
I admit it. When I hit the gym to lift, I hate to do squats. If you lift, then you know squatting targets our biggest muscles, and this requires us to lift the most to fully challenge them. Honestly, I would find excuses to skip squats if I didn’t remind myself these muscles are [...]
We all know the best way to calm the wiggles is more moving. Remember Ms. Kay's story? Just two minutes of moving brought calm to her classroom so she could move her circle time forward. Instead of battling the wiggles, she leaned into them. Her idea was simple, but having numerous easy ideas in your [...]
When I entered kindergarten, a very long time ago, my school called it Primer, not kindergarten. We had two classrooms within which we moved and learned. We must have stayed until at least 2 pm because I remember eating lunch and having a nap on one of those trifold plastic mats that were red [...]
Every day we as teachers make our students uncomfortable. That is our job. It is the discomfort that helps them learn and grow. But if learning and growing means getting uncomfortable, shouldn’t we all be doing it? It may feel uncomfortable to get your kids moving during the day. To stop as Ms Kay [...]
It was circle time one school morning this past spring. All the 4-year-old children in Ms. Kay's class were settling into their spots, but Charlie couldn’t sit still. Not only was he unable to sit still, he was doing donkey kicks at his spot. Ms Kay knew this was going to sidetrack her plan [...]
Fact: Adults who are sedentary, teach the children around them to be sedentary. Fact: 1.8 billion adults are currently at risk from insufficient physical activity. That means, children today are learning from the adults in their lives that sedentary behaviors are the norm. But they aren’t. Sedentary behaviors in childhood set children up for a [...]
