And What Parents and Teachers Need to Know Instead You're feeling the pressure. Parents want their 4-year-old reading. The elementary school down the street expects incoming kindergarteners to know their letters and numbers. Your preschool director is asking about "academic readiness." Social media is full of 3-year-olds doing worksheets at tiny desks. But here's what [...]
Research-backed activities that reduce behavior incidents and boost focus Brain-Science Based Activities That Reduce Behavior and Boost Focus If you're an elementary teacher struggling with student focus, behavior incidents, or that afternoon slump, you're not alone. Movement breaks for elementary students are one of the most powerful—and underused—tools in your classroom management toolkit. After working [...]
Too much screen time? Your kids don’t like sports? Guess what? Kids DO like to run, move, and play, even if they don't like the competition and intensity of sports. How do you know? Open the gate to your local playground, open the door to the classroom at pickup, open your back door, and [...]
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 [...]
