Hi there– I’m Melissa from the Paisley Owl! I am excited to be guest posting about how I keep kids active in the classroom and encourage them to be active at home!

I teach Kindergarten. If you teach a primary grade you KNOW how little ones need to keep moving. Asking them to sit in a desk and work for long periods of time just doesn’t fly… and it really shouldn’t! They’re young, they need to move, and it is important to recognize that! I have found that giving lots of breaks, having active seating options, and encouraging movement REALLY helps kids to focus and cuts down on managing unwanted behaviors. How do I do it?

Flexible, active seating!

I have provided lots of different seating options for my students. We have yoga balls, yoga mats, scoop rockers, clipboards, beanbag chairs, and even a circus tent! I have laminated folders with their name tags that they bring with them to wherever they choose to sit, this way they have a model of their name with that at all times! (This was one of my concerns when I decided to do flexible seating!)

Their “stuff” is kept in “group bins” at different locations in the room. My more active students gravitate towards the yoga balls and scoop rockers. They happily bounce and rock while doing their work! Allowing seat choice has really increased productivity… students are SO much more focused!

Brain Breaks!

We take A LOT of brain breaks throughout the day. It’s great because it gets them moving and they can get their wiggles out… and I can prep for the next activity!

I use Go Noodle for brain breaks. There are an endless amount of options and they are always adding more! This year my students LOVE Kids Bop dances and Zumba. Last year my little ones were huge fans of Koo Koo Kangaroo!

When you set up your account, you pick a character and after a certain amount of videos, the character evolves! The kids REALLY look forward to this. Once your character is fully evolved, you get a new one! That just adds to the excitement. If you haven’t heard of Go Noodle, you should most certainly check it out!

YOGA!

Real talk– i’m NOT a Yoga person. I go to the gym, but I stay away from the yoga classes. However, there are HUGE benefits to doing yoga… especially for kids! Instead of a “traditional rest time” I put on Cosmic Kids Yoga for my class as an option. The videos are amazing! The kids follow along while a story is being told. There is even a Hungry Caterpillar yoga video!

You can access Cosmic Kids directly through their website, or pull it up on YouTube. It’s all free! I give kids who work extra hard at Yoga special “yoga brag tags” for their key chains. For the ones who don’t want to do it? They have the option of having a “normal” rest time and just listening to the story being told on the Cosmic Kids video!

“Active Kids”

I wanted to stay away from the traditional homework with my Kindergartners. A lot of the research I have read leans towards 0 minutes of HW for Kinders, and I really haven’t seen too much of a benefit from sending it home. I have found that the majority of the time parents just end up guiding them through it– it’s really not independent at all.

This year I really wanted to encourage my students to be active at home. So I came up with “Active Kids” choice menus that I send home 2X a month. Some options are: jump roping while saying the alphabet, inventing a game and playing outside, and going on a nature walk to look for different colors.

The kids have lots of different choices. When they do an activity, they fill out a ticket that is entered into a lottery for a prize. The more they do, the better chance of winning!

The activities on Active Kids are appropriate for grades K-3. You can grab it from my store by clicking here!

I am Melissa (The Paisley Owl)– I taught upper elementary for a few years, and I am currently making the journey down to Kindergarten! I am a graduate of the Rutgers Graduate School of Education. I am passionate about finding new ways to differentiate instruction, and I believe that if the bar is raised high, students will excel. For upper elementary center-work to go along with the Daily Five, you can head on over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store or visit my blog.