Movement Rationale
Think about your class taking a deep breath in unison. This simple action is just one conscious way to integrate movement into the classroom. Think about what happens as the students enter the classroom, sit down, pick up a pencil, raise their hands, or even gaze around the room . “Our brain is designed for moving
, not sitting” (Jensen, 2000, p.17). We already have many ways in which students are engaged in movement, but how can we make the movement more meaningful? Movement increases memory and builds dendrites, bridges the language barrier, engages the overly active child, and helps maintain our physical well-being. Integrated movement activities support learning and are possible for all academic disciplines.
The complex communication between the mind and body is what engages our learning brain. Eric Jensen, a researcher of brain based learning, explains how the human body, mind, and environment impact our individual biological system. Our brains are constantly working. They do not rest (Jensen, 2000).
Children’s brains are developing and adapting to their current environment. Their brains are formulating new connections and pathways as they learn. “Procedural memory is one of the strongest memory systems in the brain and is the reason that one seldom forgets how to drive a car, ride a bicycle, play the piano, type on a keyboard, tie one’s shoe, or brush one’s teeth. It is accessed when the body is involved while one is learning. When there is a brain-body connection, memory is en hanced” (Tate, 2010). We see the excitement of a child grow as they learn by doing; through creating and performing they share their understanding with

us. During these moments we realize they truly are creatures of movement.
Planning and encouraging creative movement in the classroom is something we must embrace. The brain will love it!
We are often faced with the challenge of helping bridge language barriers for students who speak English as a second language. An advantage of kinesthetic activities is that they support the study of language skills. Students involved in learning through movement are exercising their bodies to communicate ideas. They activate their brain as they make movements to demonstrate their thinking. As we make a conscious effort to implement more kinesthetic learning in our classrooms, time and time again, we witness students,
“who struggle to explain a concept on paper easily explain it with their bodies.
Some of these students are able to write a response as long as they have
‘moved’ it first” (Skoning, 2010, p. 173). Students are able to experience a concept through one intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic, thereby helping to strengthen another, their verbal-linguistic intelligence. Movement is a means of communication regardless of what language is spoken; no translation is necessary. Movement is a means of universal communication.
What better way to use the vigor of the young and energetic? Creative movement channels energy onto a positive and purposeful course. Instead of saying “stop” to students who are impatiently tapping and nervously kicking furniture, students could be led in focused rhythmic claps, snaps, and taps. For the early childhood educator it is a win-win situation in which students may use their energy while at the same time engaging in actively following directions.

Student
’s energy may be better harnessed and directed into lessons aligned with learning standards, such as designing a dance which depicts the water cycle, or developing a sequence of movements to summarize the plot of a story. Creative movement gives educators another means of visual assessment and analysis.
This may also be the tool a student needs to translate and understand concepts and words, or spark the student’s memory when the time arrives for formal assessments.
We commonly hear in the world around us that in order to stay healthy, it is important to take care of our bodies. Regular exercise and physical activity is an important element of maintaining our health. Bending and stretching, walking and running, throwing and catching -- these are all functional movements in our daily lives. The human body was not designed to sit in a chair all day. It is amazing that many children and adults sit still and work as long as they do without getting up and moving. As Jensen stated in Learning with the Brain in
Mind , “Both research and classroom practice clearly support sustaining (and increasing) the role of movement in learning” (p.89).
Incorporating more kinesthetic activities into the daily classroom schedule is not only healthy for us but it sends a positive message to our students; moving is beneficial when it is focused and purposeful.
Another encouraging fact, creative movement doesn’t require expensive equipment or volumes of materials. Our student’s willingness to move is all that’s necessary as we begin to incorporate movement into the classroom. We learn best by doing, so we must set a good example and move with the rhythm of life.

Kinesthetic movement keeps our hearts healthy and strong bringing fresh blood to our brains. “A person may sit quietly to think, but to remember a thought an action must be used to anchor it ” (Hannaford, 2005). We cannot achieve our full potential if we remain rooted to a chair. Join the movement: start encouraging creative movement in your classroom.
Hannaford, C. (2005). Smart moves: Why learning is not all in your head.
Salt
Lake City, Utah: Great River Books.
Skoning, S. (2010). Dancing the curriculum. Kappa Delta Pi Record , 46 (4), 170
174.
Tate, M. (2010). Worksheets don't grow dendrites: 20 instructional strategies that
engage the brain (2nd Edition ed.). Corwin.