Engaging minds through physical activity
Don’t let the social and physical distancing protocols stop you from allowing your students to engage in classroom physical activity! If there’s anything we’ve learned from the pandemic, it’s that youth and adults alike need to move and get fresh air. I’m sharing some simple ABCs for integrating physical activity in your classroom with appropriate [...]
Since Thanksgiving Break, our kindergartner has been distance learning. And, while we are headed back to a more normal elementary school experience in Minnesota, we still have had to make adjustments to our home and to our daughter’s learning space to provide her with the best opportunity to be successful in school. The added challenge as a parent now working from [...]
Recently our team was recruited to design a secondary classroom for a partner in the Midwest. Not just any classroom though—this one would have to take social distancing into account while considering a headcount of nearly 20 students. The space was a typical 25’ x 25’ classroom that needs to promote learning. When speaking with [...]
The furniture industry is going to throw a lot of antimicrobial products at educators, office suppliers, architects- you name the industry and it will probably happen. Antimicrobial products are fantastic. BUT, do you even know what that means? Here is the quick breakdown of what this all means. As a quick primer before we go [...]
Students have been sitting on their couches and running the roost of their homes since March. In the likely event that students will head back to classrooms in the fall, it will be important to provide an environment that helps them transition back to the classroom, keeps them engaged, and works in the favor of [...]
This winter, in collaboration with Dr. Lynne Kenney, leading pediatric psychologist, author, and educator, and Mike Kuczala, educational leader and author of The Kinesthetic Classroom, Moving Minds developed BrainPrimers—a product that we hope will expand the conversation about movement and learning. With the Moving Minds product development team, Mike and Lynne brought their BrainPrimers activity decks to fruition, resulting in an easy-to-implement classroom curriculum that utilizes movement to stimulate our students’ brains. Targeting executive [...]
I am not sure about everyone else, but I am tired. My family is tired. Pandemics are exhausting. If you are not working from a soft spot on your couch or an in-home office, then you might be surfing the web reading about the pandemic. It is relentless. Like this disease, the exhaustion and mental [...]
As the pandemic continues, it is important that our students take time away from schoolwork for relaxation. Routines have changed and we’ve had to adapt in many ways to stay healthy. I have found mindfulness to be especially helpful for my students during this time. In the classroom we use apps such as Calm and [...]
School looks different since the pandemic. It has been challenging to leave the classroom and move all learning to an online format. We miss each other. However, we know it is important to keep up with learning. That’s why we’re motivated and excited about learning with some of our favorite websites. One way we stay [...]
We’ve created a resource of daily brain breaks that you can do at home! Feel free to switch around the days to best suit your schedule, or put your own twist on the brain breaks. You can find more daily brain breaks here: Week 1Week 2Week 3Week 4 Monday Yoga Spine Stretch Sit upright, legs [...]
