Morning movement classroom time is a great way to start the day! After warming up our bodies and minds, my students are ready to tackle any activity for the day! On most days, I have my students do 5-10 minutes of classroom movement time in the morning before we start our day.
3 Morning Movement Ideas Your Students will Love!
1. Online Resources (GoNoodle, YouTube)
- SMART Board and online resources such as GoNoodle and YouTube provide many dance videos that can be quick and engaging. My younger students love the catchy songs, and you can see that it gets them excited for the day! Some activities are more educational than others, but the choice is up to the teacher.
2. Review Games
- Review Games are also great for morning movement! I like to place alphabet cards throughout the room on the floor. I play music and let them dance. When the music stops, they must run to a letter. When they get to the letter, they have to tell me the name, the sound, and a word that starts with that letter. Sometimes I will have them do it in different voices too (alien voice, whisper voice, etc.)! I’ve also played this with math flash cards in a similar fashion. Students must move around the room, and when the music stops they must shout the answer to the problem they are standing on.
3. Student exercise choices
- Student exercise choices are also great for morning movement. Throughout the first month of school, I like to share some of my favorite moves with them. Later in the year, they may choose these as our morning movement for the day. I like to pair the movement with a math or literacy skill and base the reps off of the difficulty of the move. For example: a student may pick jumping jacks. We would then count by 1’s to 30 while doing jumping jacks. Another example: a student may pick sit ups and we count by 10’s to 100 while doing them. Due to lack of strength, some moves will be more challenging than othes.
Ideas to Calm Students Down
Classroom movement time in the morning is a great time to quickly get students blood pumping and get them ready for the day! However, on occasion, you may just want to get them calmed down and focused! Morning movement is still great for this! On these days, when I notice the kiddos are all out sorts (Christmas parties, assembly days, etc.), I like to use yoga and stretching moves to start the day! We really try to focus on breathing and concentrating on days like this!
This coming school year I will be teaching fifth grade! I’m excited to implement morning movement classroom time in a more complex way! I’d love to hear what other types of morning movement activities you use!
Jessica Tice is currently in her fifth year of teaching Kindergarten at Western Elementary in Scott County, Kentucky. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and a master’s degree in Teacher Leadership and English as a Second Language.
Tice is a mom to two very busy boys that are active in school, soccer, and scouts. She enjoys working out daily and instilling that same value in her students by incorporating physical activity and purposeful movement throughout the school day.
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