pblackburn

About Preston Blackburn

Preston created Pop, Hop & Rock™ in 2000 when her children were preschoolers. What started as an exercise program has evolved into one that focuses on creating opportunities for kids to hone fundamental strengths and skills that allow them to develop physical literacy and build aerobic, core, and other foundational strengths proven to make kids better learners. Pop, Hop & Rock™ continues to lead games and activities in schools in Richmond, VA having racked up thousands of hours testing and honing games to share. Preston took this a step further and created Pivot to Play® to help schools anywhere get kids moving for improved learning and behavior. Today Pivot to Play® offers consulting and curricula to schools while also training coaches to become Pivot to Play Certified® so they can build a business and affect change in their own communities.

Let’s Make Structured Play Sexy Again

By |2025-04-04T07:17:05-04:00Apr 3rd, 2025|Blog|

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 [...]

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How Many Senses Do We Have?

By |2025-03-26T14:17:44-04:00Mar 26th, 2025|Blog|

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 [...]

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Physical Literacy

By |2025-03-05T13:17:16-05:00Mar 5th, 2025|Blog|

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 [...]

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Technology and Kids

By |2025-05-25T09:54:19-04:00Nov 27th, 2024|Blog|

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 [...]

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What do squats have to do with learning?

By |2024-10-28T12:37:59-04:00Oct 28th, 2024|Uncategorized|

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 [...]

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Easy ways to calm wiggly bodies

By |2024-10-14T18:24:01-04:00Oct 14th, 2024|Blog|

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 [...]

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Why chores are an important part of school

By |2025-05-24T08:59:41-04:00Sep 24th, 2024|Blog|

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 [...]

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Ready to Get Uncomfortable?

By |2024-08-01T14:47:32-04:00Aug 1st, 2024|Blog|

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 [...]

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Ms. Kay’s Story

By |2024-08-01T14:32:41-04:00Aug 1st, 2024|Blog|

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 [...]

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Kicking off the School Year

By |2024-08-01T13:21:32-04:00Aug 1st, 2024|Blog|

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 [...]

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