Get your students’ energy levels up and learn at the same time
A simple and free way to ignite your students’ brains, help with midday classroom fatigue and improve fitness is to introduce some fun games to keep them physically and mentally healthy and improve overall wellbeing.
There are many benefits of physical activity for children and young people, these include, enhanced mental wellbeing including positive self-esteem and lower levels of anxiety and stress, improved confidence and peer acceptance and improved concentration and attention.
In children and young people, physical activity is critical for motor development, cognitive improvement, psychosocial and cardio-metabolic health.
In addition, The World Health Organisation (WHO) argues that investment in physical activity during school is an investment in better child development and better educational outcomes. Research has shown physical activity provides cognitive benefits for children with disabilities by stimulating the attention system including sequencing, working memory, the ability to prioritise, increased inhibition and attention span making them more primed to learn.
We’ve put together eight ways to keep your class fit and healthy while learning.
Classroom warm-ups
A quick classroom stretch, walking around the room, or a few jumping jacks are all great ways to begin your lessons and get the whole class refreshed for the next lesson. We are well aware that sitting at a desk for long periods of time is bad for us. Prolonged periods of sitting can lead to obesity and a cluster of conditions including, increased blood pressure, high blood sugar and unhealthy cholesterol levels. Quick warm-ups will help your class feel energised and are a great quick mood booster.
Themed charades
Pick a theme such as jungle animals, zoo animals or pets and draw pictures on cards. Split the class into different groups and get each group to take turns picking a card from the pile. The group then must act out the animal with the rest of the groups trying to guess what the animal is. This learning activity is suitable for younger children and gets them to think creatively. It’s a great way to improve confidence in younger children and get their bodies moving while ultimately having fun with their peers.
Measurement long jump
Jumping is a great technique for studying measurements and number order. The teacher or students can mark out the measurements or numbers on the ground with chalk or masking tape and then take turns jumping and recording their results. You could get the class to compare a standing jump to a running jump.
Historical and Cultural Dance
As part of your classes focus on learning about other cultures why not set up a few days per month to get the class engaged in different traditional dance from around the world or throughout different historical periods. Some ideas include, Spanish flamenco dancing, waltzing from the 18th century, American hip-hop or traditional Scottish dance. If you know a dance teacher who could volunteer a few spare hours of their time and come in to teach the class even better!
The World Around Us
Take your class out for a walk around the local area, whether your school is situated in a town or a rural area there are plenty of things to see and help your class experience in the environment they live in. Make a checklist of things for the children to do as they start their walk and get them to tick off the places or things when they spot them. Walking is a very simple way to get your class out and about and keep them healthy.
Fitness Bingo
Create some fitness bingo sheets for the whole class with different exercises on them and place the exercises in different squares on the sheet. For example: four push ups, 10 second plank, eight jumping jacks, 10 high knees. Students do the fitness activity once the teacher has called one out and place a counter over the activity once they’re finished. The first pupil to cover a row of fitness activities on their board calls out, ‘Fitness bingo’ and is the winner!
Ball-Toss Spelling
Concentrating on words that your class have been learning to spell throughout the year, call out a spelling word, then toss one of your students a rubber-band ball. The student calls out the first letter in the word, then tosses the ball to another student who calls out the second letter and so on until the whole word has been spelt out.
