Movement is a Big Part of Learning for Little Kids

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By Catherine Paglin

Christopher Robin goes hoppity, hoppity, hoppity, hoppity hop. Whenever I tell him politely to stop it, he says he can't possibly stop.
—A.A. Milne

PORTLAND, Oregon—
Amidst the general hubbub of a preschool classroom, a little boy sits on a child's rocking chair. While other kids dabble in sand, play concentration, or clip coupons for an imaginary store, the four-year-old boy rocks back and forth, slowly, deliberately. Then he lets go of the armrests in a brief "Look Ma, no hands!" gesture while the chair rocks full tilt. Finally, he grasps the armrests again, stands up, and marches in a small circle, holding the chair to his bottom.

Whether it's free play outside, dance and exercise in the gym, or just times when kids can roam from activity to activity, a developmentally appropriate classroom gives young children many opportunities for movement. "At this age their bodies need to move," says Kelly Petrin, the teacher in this Portland Public Schools Head Start class. "It's normal and it's something they're supposed to do."

Movement is essential to the physical and cognitive development of preschoolers, says the American Academy of Pediatrics. It's the way they explore the world. In the years before kindergarten most children master basic motor skills such as jumping, hopping, and skipping, though there is much individual variation in development. Movement experiences—in addition to stories, songs, games, puzzles, blocks, dramatic play, finger-painting, and all manner of other stimulating activities and materials—are a critical part of early childhood education. Beyond preschool, young children can learn to play games with rules and master more difficult activities—such as bike riding, jumping rope, and hopscotch—that will give them enjoyment and boost their self-esteem.

Formerly, young children got much of their physical activity in unstructured ways: running around the neighborhood, climbing trees, playing informal games in the street. Ironically, while educators and health professionals tout the health benefits of fitness, and even the importance of movement in brain development (see A Cautionary Note on Brain Research), children today have less freedom of movement than ever. Sue Bredekamp, Director of Research at the Council for Professional Recognition, and a consultant to the federal Head Start Bureau, cites three contributing factors: heightened awareness of the need to protect children, heightened litigiousness, and heightened awareness of young children's intellectual capacities which makes it more likely that caregivers will place them in front of a computer.

These societal trends play out differently in different places. Petrin knows that some of her Head Start pupils are confined to small apartments and have no yard to play in. Ironically, others, lacking adequate adult supervision, may become more physically capable because they roam free. Steve Paranto, a PE teacher in the middle-class suburb of Beaverton, Oregon, sees something else: "I've noticed some kids are more active than kids were 20 years ago because their parents have them signed up for every little thing, but it's all organized. And then there's the other extreme of kids who do nothing because they're doing computers and video games and TV. So we have two extremes that we didn't have before."

Because of these social changes, it's all the more important for kids to move vigorously and learn motor skills at school or in child care. At a time when many babies and toddlers spend hours in car seats, strollers, and other restrictive devices, Oregon Migrant Head Start makes freedom of movement a cornerstone of its classroom design around the state. "In our infant classrooms, we don't allow any confining props—no motorized swings or infant seats that would restrain a child's movement," says Jeanne McNassar, education specialist with the Oregon Child Development Coalition which runs the program. Infants are placed on a blanket with stimulating materials, such as a mobile, within reach. If children are learning to crawl or creep, the teacher will place a toy a few feet in front of them so that they're encouraged to move forward. When children become mobile, they're supplied with equipment—such as ramps, slides, and bars in front of mirrors—to crawl up or for "cruising" (holding on to objects in order to walk). At every stage, teachers are encouraged to support children's current developmental challenges instead of, for instance, forcing them to attempt walking before they are ready.

Opportunities for movement are many and varied for the preschoolers in the Portland Public Schools Head Start program. The four- and five-year-olds in Petrin's class go outside as much as possible where they can play on ladders, slides, and swings, drive wheel toys and kick balls, or play follow the leader. They use balance boards, balance beams, and bean bags. In the gym they might move to music or rhythm. They might dance or do movements such as twirling and skipping, move like different kinds of animals, or practice stopping and starting on a signal. "Jingle, jingle, jingle jive, Walk while I count to five," chants Petrin. "One, two, three, four, five." Then she varies the chant, directing the kids to walk backward, run, jump, crawl, walk sideways, skip, hop on one foot, twirl, gallop, and move like a tall giraffe, a low snake, a big elephant, and a small mouse. "We try to give them a lot of experiences with different music rhythms, music from different cultures, different ways of movement, and all the different equipment so that they're getting new experiences," says Petrin.

As Petrin chants, some children do the movements smoothly. Others are awkward and have difficulty walking backward and sideways. But Petrin doesn't correct them. "For me to go up and say, 'No, you're not doing it right,' would be inappropriate," she says. "What we really try to do is give them the opportunity and encourage them to move toward the goal, but not expect them to get it immediately."

Three times a year, in order to target instruction, she and the other teachers in the program assess each child's general coordination and whether they are "careful enough, careless, or overly cautious" in how they move. They're assessed on walking on three different sizes of balance beams, jumping over lines and off a chair, running, hopping, galloping, skipping, walking up and down stairs, and throwing and catching.

If Petrin finds that a child has difficulty with a particular skill, such as balance, she'll include more activities such as standing on one foot during the daily 20-minute gross motor period, or during group games such as Simon says. "In our program we try to allow children to leave here without those kinds of deficits," she says. She'll suggest to parents of kids who are lagging behind their agemates that they do more of certain activities with their child such as walking on curbs or skipping together.

Though most preschoolers will eventually learn the basic motor skills whether or not they have adult support and instruction, movement education has physical, social and academic benefits. "When you have skill-building along with physical development, the child gains increased competence and confidence," says Bredekamp. Later, with additional adult support, that child is more easily able to learn more complicated skills such as riding a bike or skiing, she says. Petrin notes that "when children get into elementary school, being a little more physically capable actually helps them socially, too. They're able to take part in the games and have fun and not be the one who's the outcast because they're just too clumsy to follow along." In the cognitive realm, movement activities can help preschoolers learn body parts and understand abstract, spatial concepts such as up and down, backward, forward, and sideways, and over and under. Psychologist Howard Gardner, author of Multiple Intelligences, even posits the existence of a "bodily kinesthetic intelligence"—the ability to solve problems and express ideas with the body, as do dancers and athletes.

The benefits of movement continue in the primary grades. "Children who are physically fit do better academically in general," says Carl Gabbard, professor of motor development at Texas A&M University. "They have the energy to concentrate and carry out work." And, he says, there's good evidence that when movement activities are used to reinforce academic concepts, "children are enthusiastic and tend to remember and retain the information."

That enthusiasm is readily apparent when first-graders at Scholls Heights Elementary School burst into the gym where Paranto is brandishing a "rainbow ribbon"—a multicolored streamer attached to a plastic stick. "What are these?" asks Paranto, pointing to drawings of a triangle, a square, and a circle, set up on cones. The kids call out the answers in chorus. He instructs them to trace all those shapes in the air with their ribbons, and then do the alphabet. "After you do the alphabet," he tells them, "you can do some fun things like figure eight, tornado, rattlesnake, windshield wiper." As he talks, he demonstrates these motions to the children's delight. "I bet you can make up some of your own."

"This is going to be so hard," a boy says gleefully. The kids rush into the activity, flourishing their ribbons, some of them consulting the drawings as they do so.

"Now they can really feel the shape," says Paranto. "In the classroom, sometimes little kids will write in sand. It's the same thing. It's kinesthetic, but in a different way."

"ABC … D!" says the boy, drawing his "D" in the air. Then he has to stop and retrace his steps mentally. "ABCD … E!"

When the kids have made their way through the alphabet Paranto steps up the pace. "Now we're going to move just to be moving," he says, flipping on a song with a strong beat. "When you turn music on kids start hopping around, using a lot more energy," he says as the rainbow ribbons wave and twirl against the mauve background of the gym walls.

Paranto's PE lessons touch on many "classroom" concepts—clockwise and counterclockwise, less than and more than, halving and doubling. "I listen at the staff meetings to find out what they're working on," Paranto explains. "They may be talking about how important it is for the kids to understand what a pattern is, and then I think, How can I incorporate that into my lessons? How can I at least get the word 'patterns' into my lessons?—because that's a step forward right there. Physical education is important enough to stand all on its own, but there are just some perfect places to make connections with the classroom. If the classrooms are studying a country you can do a dance from that country, you can do games from that country. It's so easy to get math involved in PE. And science, because you're propelling an object some of the time."

Paranto's colleague, Rick Knight at Hiteon Elementary in Beaverton, also incorporates literacy and math activities in his class. His young students bend their bodies into the shapes of the letters of the alphabet and apply math in games such as bingo bowling. In bingo bowling the students roll rubber bowling balls to knock down plastic pins, count the number of pins knocked down, and then mark off the number on a bingo sheet. Depending on their math skills, if the number is no longer available on the sheet, they can mark off two numbers that when added together or subtracted from each other equal the number of pins knocked down.

On a more basic level, Mike Barber, a Portland Public Schools special education teacher, uses movement to unlock verbal abilities of his emotionally disturbed kindergartners. "This population has high energy," says Barber. "I like to give them experiences that are unique, and big, and match their energy. Dance offers the opportunity to experience things they can't in other ways."

In addition to other dance and movement activities, Barber, who is a member of the Portland-based aerial dance company, Aero Betty, introduces his students to the trapeze which is "full of metaphors of flight and escape and freedom. "We start with yoga class and do stretching on the floor and then we do a very safe and structured introduction to the trapeze where they learn about circles, swings, shapes. During trapeze there's lots of language: 'How does this feel? What are you doing? Can you describe the feeling of the circle or swinging?' Giving them a visceral experience like that and then asking them to describe it is just having them practice using language appropriately—language that describes and expresses."

POKER-CHIP DODGE BALL

Since young children's minds and bodies differ from those of bigger kids, their activities, rules, and equipment need to be modified accordingly. Complicated rules and competitive play don't work for preschoolers, says Petrin. "We just play and move bodies," she says. "Everybody plays together. But playing by a whole lot of rules—other than the rules to keep you safe—is really not appropriate for four-year-olds." Both Petrin and Paranto avoid elimination games and others in which too many students spend too much time doing nothing. "A favorite one at this age level for a lot of people is Duck, Duck, Goose," says Petrin, referring to a game in which kids sit in a circle and one—the duck—chooses another—the goose—to chase him around the circle until he reaches the goose's place, whereupon the goose becomes the new duck. "I don't like that game and I never play it in my classroom. Most of the kids are just sitting most of the time so I don't consider it physical activity."

Paranto has modified both the equipment and rules for dodge ball so that it's a far cry from the traditional, aggressive melee in which the object is to get one's opponents out by hitting them as hard as possible with a playground ball. "If this was done with the wrong ball, it would not be fun for a lot of kids," says Paranto. "I see schools doing that and then you see articles saying dodge ball's a bad thing. Yeah, you did it with the wrong equipment and it hurt." In his version—poker-chip dodge ball—the kids throw soft, squishy balls at each other and no one is ever out. If a child is hit by one of the soft balls and doesn't catch it, he just grabs a poker chip from a container and puts it in his team's bucket. The team with fewer poker chips wins.

When first-graders at Scholls Heights play dodge ball with the softer balls, they're laughing and concentrating on throwing and catching, instead of cowering in fear of the strongest players. After the game, it's time to count up the poker chips with the help of Paranto's ventriloquist's dummy, Kenny.

"We're going to count them up," says Paranto to Kenny, who's dressed in a white shirt, bright blue pants, and spectacles. "The team that has the most in this game is actually not the winning team."

"How come?" asks Kenny in a squeaky, nasal voice.

"Because they got hit more than the other team," Paranto explains to the dummy. "The team that has 'less than' wins."

"Oh, less than," squeaks Kenny, knowingly.

"Do you guys know the sign for that?" Paranto asks the kids, who draw the "less than" sign in the air with their fingers.

After Paranto, Kenny, and a student count up the chips (one batch by twos and one batch by fives) the kids shout and wave as the teacher returns Kenny to the back room. "Good-bye Kenny, good-bye Kenny!"

For the primary grades Paranto focuses on dance and rhythm, games with simplified rules, cooperative group activities, and skills such as juggling, jumping rope, and unicycling. Kids can be successful at activities like these, regardless of their skeletal size or physical maturation, which can vary by as much as six years among eight-year-olds, according to experts. "When you introduce an activity, there's so many levels that each child can perform that activity," says Paranto. "If we were jumping rope, at a very beginner level they're going to have the rope lying on the ground. They're just jumping over it. The next step is both handles are in one hand and they're turning the rope and jumping over it. They can't miss. The next level would be one turn at a time. The next level is continuous jumping. In one class of, say, third-graders, you're going to see all of those. You're going to have the low end jumping over the rope and you'll have the high end doing double unders."

When teaching fitness activities, Paranto stresses that fitness is about working out at your own level. Fitness activities are structured to allow for individual differences. "Back in the older days we had kids running the mile and being last and they felt bad," he says. Today, with a second-grade class, Paranto turns on two tape machines, one with music, one with beeps that gradually get closer together. The kids run the width of the gym, then wait for the beep before running back. If they lag behind the beep three times, Paranto tells them, they are to walk clockwise around the gym's outer edge. "Remember, we're learning how to pace ourselves so we save our energy," he says.

"You got to make sure they know, hey, that's natural, everybody develops at a different rate. Kids learn skills at different rates too. Like Yuka's riding the unicycle. Other kids aren't doing that right now. Maybe she can learn in five hours. Maybe for me it's 18 hours."

WAVING THEIR WINGS

With each activity or technique Paranto introduces, he describes it, he demonstrates it, and then the children enact it. In this way, three different instructional techniques and learning styles—auditory, visual, and kinesthetic—reinforce each other. The emphasis, though, is on the kinesthetic. This multifaceted approach is also evident in the preschool, not only in the gym, but in the classroom when Petrin reads The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Before she reads she hands out tiny, stuffed cloth versions of the insatiable caterpillar and all the things he ate—strawberries, apples, plums, and more. The children listen quietly, getting up when it's their turn to stick one of the Velcroed images to a felt board. When Petrin's finished reading, she says, "Let's make our bodies pretend they're the different parts," and guides the children once again through the transformation from egg to caterpillar to cocoon to butterfly.

Clearly, her students understand the story with every ounce of their small bodies. "What was he doing while he was crawling around?" she asks the 13 four- and five-year-old caterpillars who are twisting and wriggling, either on their tummies or as they walk around.

"He was founding food!" cries a girl.

"Yes, he was finding food, so you can eat while you're crawling around," Petrin responds. The children open and shut their jaws as they pretend to eat all the foods they like until they're big and fat and turn into cocoons. Then, at Petrin's urging, they hold still, crouched and balled up, for a very long time. "We have to wait for more than two weeks," says Petrin. Then it's time to take a tiny bite of the cocoon and push out. "Ooo, ooo," the children coo quietly, as they step lightly and wave their big wings.

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