Preparing the space and preparing to learn

Unit 1.1 Preparing the space and preparing to learn

Welcome to the Move to Learn Training Series. Please watch the Instructional Video, and then proceed to the Learning Guide. Once you have completed the Learning Guide, go to the Self-Assessment Survey to complete this unit. When you finish the Self-Assessment Survey, you will receive your certificate for this unit.

Instructional Video

The reference documents cited in the Instructional Video are included at the end of the Learning Guide.

Learning Guide

Introduction

When I was in kindergarten, everyone had an assigned chair. Not an assigned seat, but an assigned chair. That meant if I wanted to go play at the art table, I had to pick up my chair and take it with me. If I wanted to play with the math manipulatives, I had to pick up my chair and take it with me.

I have heard about an arcane school punishment where kids carry a desk around the athletic field during recess, but my kindergarten chair carrying was not a punishment. We never thought twice about it because the first day of school was consumed with HOW to carry your chair. Facing the chair from its side, you picked up the seat in one hand and the back of the chair in the other. We spent a good part of that first day mastering the required carrying skill, and it then became de rigueur. In hindsight, it was pretty ingenious. Just think about the strength building it required: core strength, grip strength, upper body and lower body strength. We had to strengthen our sense of body and space awareness in order to recognize how much space was consumed by the combination of our own bodies plus the chair as we maneuvered around tables and general kindergarten classroom detritus.

Asking children to carry their chairs may not be practical in your classroom, so we will create alternatives for strengthening those same muscles and developing those same skills. The bigger challenge is that my friends and I came to kindergarten with most of those strengths and skills well-honed because we had spent so much time in outdoor and big body play. Children today do not enter kindergarten as physically prepared. So, we will have to lay the foundation for these important skills in preschool.

Not to worry! We have lots of fun ways to get children moving and developing.

Things to read

Here are some articles to get you excited about the benefits of outdoor, full body play.

Hudson, Sara. “Inside Versus Outside Play.” Pophopandrock.com 7/20/12
https://pivottoplay.com/inside-versus-outside-play/

Semmens, Jackie. “Four Research-Backed Benefits of Outdoor Play.” Motherly http://www.parent.co/4-research-backed-benefits-of-outdoor-play/

Bowen, Becky “How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Helps Children Find Their Voices.” 11/9/15 http://www.balancedandbarefoot.com/blog/how-unrestricted-outdoor-play-helps-children-find-their-voices

Arkin, Monica “Outdoor Play Boosts Children’s Performance in Class.” 10/10/17
https://www.childinthecity.org/2017/10/10/?gdpr=accept

Equipment
To prepare for physical learning, first you need the tools. Here are some suggestions for equipment to add to both your indoor and outdoor space. This list of equipment will be used in the Quick Idea, the Activity, and the Collaborative Assignment for this unit.

Indoor space

Cardboard bricks
Sofa cushions
2x4s
Rope
Half domes

Outdoor Space

Liquid soap
Paint
Tree cookies and larger logs
Bales of hay
Real traffic cones
5 gallon buckets
Sand
2x4s and planks
Battle ropes or the equivalent
Water
Shaving Cream

Quick Idea for Incorporating Physical Activity Throughout the Day: Waiting Time = Balance Practice

This month, try placing unstable surfaces for balancing strategically around your classroom. Places where children wait, like by the sink, can be places to work on balance. Install wobbly surfaces, such as cardboard bricks, sofa cushions, 2x4s, 2x4s with a rope running lengthwise underneath, half domes. While your children are waiting – a necessary evil in a preschool classroom – they will also be working on their core strength and vestibular development.

Move to Learn Activity: Making Art Bigger and Messier Discovery

You don’t need a lot of expensive equipment to introduce messy, physical, big body exploration into your preschool day. Take some readily available stuff – paint, liquid soap, a tray, some poster board and big cheap brushes (the kind you get at Dollar Tree.) Head outside, and see how the bigger brushes, and the outdoor experience can make this project more full body and more exploratory.

Pour some paint and liquid soap onto a tray (the liquid soap makes clean up easier.) To make this a color-mixing activity, use two primary colors. Let the kids investigate different ways to move the brushes through the paint and onto the poster board. Make this a collaborative art piece by adding more trays of paint, more brushes and more colors. Use a long piece of bulletin board paper and make a class masterpiece.

To make this even more fun, let the kids help clean up the paint outside so they can play in the big soapy rainbow river that comes from the cleaning.

Move to Learn Collaborative Assignment: Taking the Inside to the Outside

In the Move to Learn Activity, we took an inside activity (painting) and took it outside to make it more physical, and more fun. For this Collaborative Assignment, turn the traditional on its head by taking another inside activity outside. By making inside activities bigger and messier, you will find lots of ways to increase full-body play.

Using the list of outside equipment provided, design a new activity that is based on a typical indoor activity, such as art, dramatic play, or block play. Write out your plan for that activity and try it with your class. Partner with another teacher who is also participating in this professional development unit, and swap activities. If your colleague teaches a different age group than you, work together to modify the activities for the different age groups. After trying your partner’s activity with your class, meet and provide each other with constructive feedback to improve the activities. Try your activity again with your partner’s suggested improvements.

Self-Assessment Survey

Once you have completed the Quick Idea, Activity and Collaborative Assignment for this unit, click here to access the Self-Assessment Survey.

References cited in Unit 1.1 Video

If you want to learn more about what you saw in the Unit 1.1 video, here are the studies cited.

Yogman M, Garner A, Hutchinson J, et al; AAP COMMITTEE ON PSYCHOSOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHILD AND FAMILY HEALTH, AAP COUNCIL ON COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA. The Power of Play: A Pediatric Role in Enhancing Development in Young Children. Pediatrics. 2018;142(3):e20182058

PHIT America. Inactivity Pandemic Report 2018: Impact on America. Accessed 12/17/18 http://www.phitamerica.org/Assets/PHIT+America+Digital+Assets/Inactivity/Inactivity+Pandemic+2018+America+2.pdf

Lang JJ, Tremblay MS, Léger L, et al International variability in 20 m shuttle run performance in children and youth: who are the fittest from a 50-country comparison? A systematic literature review with pooling of aggregate resultsBr J Sports Med 2018;52:276.

Youth Physical Activity Guidelines Toolkit. Centers for Disease Control. Updated 6/28/17 https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/physicalactivity/guidelines.htm

Murray, C Ng, M Mokdad, A. The vast majority of American adults are overweight or obese and weight is a growing problem among U.S. children. IHME Measuring What Matters. http://www.healthdata.org/news-release/vast-majority-american-adults-are-overweight-or-obese-and-weight-growing-problem-among accessed 8/6/18

Adult Obesity Facts. The Centers for Disease Control. www.cdc.gov Last Updated 6/12/18 https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html. accessed 8/6/18

Hannaford, Carla, Smart Moves: Why Learning is not All in Your Head 2nd edition Great River Books

Why Early Childhood Matters: Brain Development. First Things First. www.firstthingsfirst.com. https://www.firstthingsfirst.org/early-childhood-matters/brain-development/ accessed 8/9/18

DeSilver, Drew. “U.S. Students’ Academic Achievement Still Lags That of Their Peers In Many Other Countries.” 2/15/17 Pew Research Center. www.pewresearch.org. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s-students-internationally-math-science/

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