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Move It to Learn It

Celebrating the Challenges Conference-Alberta, Canada


October 16, 2010 9:00-10:30 AM
©Sandra Sunquist Stanton NCC, LPC

Welcome to our workshop!

Carla Hannaford says ―Movement is Mandatory for Learning‖. We hope our time
together will give you background to understand why your students need to
move, and some ways to provide for that within your regular curriculum and
setting.

Brain Coaching: Tapping / Body and Spirit to Max the Mind

Parking Lot – Interactive Workshop

Principles of Movement for Learning:

How Does Learning Happen?

The Brain‘s Motor Centers

Corpus Collosum

Vestibular System

Visual Processing

Vestibular-Ocular-Proprioceptive Triad:

So What?

Memory Mechanics

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Move It to Learn It © Sandra Sunquist Stanton NCC, LPC

Short Term, Working Memory

Long Term Memory

Memory Systems

What

Where

How

Now

Brain Basics

Neurotransmitters

Movement and Brain Chemistry

Emotion and Learning

Stress and Learning

Translating Principle into Practice:

Active Education – Julian Reed

Brain Gym

Stability Balls -- EP Rock Elementary School, Hudson, Wisconsin USA

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www.OurBrainBuddies.com
Move It to Learn It © Sandra Sunquist Stanton NCC, LPC

Julian Reed, Ph.D. Assistant Professor in Health and Exercise Science at


Furman University in Greenville SC, US and his K-12 teaching colleagues have
published a book of practical tips for adding movement to your classroom are
found in Dr. Julian Reed‘s book: Active Education: Lessons for Integrating
Physical Activity With Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies Please
contact him for a copy of his very practical book. Some excerpts follow…

―Sometimes you feel half of the kids are with you and half are zoned out,‖ said
Rachel Parris, a third-year teacher in Greenville South Carolina. Adding
movement into her lessons, she observed that ―my lower-achieving kids, their
reading has gone up.‖ Dr. Reed has given us permission to share some of
movement suggestions offered on his website:
http://www.moveintheclassroom.com/

―In a typical school day Parris incorporates a movement game into her lessons at
least once.
‗They‘re cross-hemisphere, so that they‘re working both the right-side and the left
side of the brain,‘ she said about Brain Gym. ‗The kids love them and they can do
more afterward‘‖.

Adding movement to your classroom pays off. The ways to do it are unlimited.
Try some of these in your classroom…

 Plan movement breaks, outdoors if possible, to break up seated lessons.

 Replace classroom chairs with Stability Balls


o Specially designed exercise balls have little feet on the bottom so
they stay put.
o Sitting on the balls allows children to move without distracting
others.
o Posture improves compared with sitting in chairs.
o Available from Lisa Witt http://www.wittfitt.com

 Have ―fidget objects‖ available for students to use keeps muscles active
during listening or discussion activities.

Reed notes, ―With childhood obesity on the rise, educators are finding ways to
get kids moving to burn calories, to stay in shape, and to enhance their learning.
Here is a brief sample of ways to make movement a part of the regular
curriculum, not an ―add-on‖.
Some of the following come from Julian Reed, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Active
Education: Lessons for Integrating Physical Activity with Language Arts, Math,
Science and Social Studies (Novascience 2009)

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www.OurBrainBuddies.com
Move It to Learn It © Sandra Sunquist Stanton NCC, LPC

Curriculum Areas:

Math
 Balance while counting to an assigned number by 2‘s, 3‘s, 5‘s, 10‘s etc.
 Act out math problems: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division,
equations
 Clapping rhythm for patterns
 Count movements (hop, skip, leap, jump) into or out of a hoop in a minute
 Measure perimeter in heel-toe steps around a marked circle or large area.
 Experience Time: walk, balance, jump or jog for 1 minute, 3 minutes, 5
minutes.
 Play hop scotch, then add or multiply the numbers

Science
 Five Senses Stations: Partners take a card with a sensory picture or
message and deliver it to the appropriate station identifying the sense
involved.
 Run in place, then check heart beat under the chin.
 Solar System: Assign a sun and planet names to students, position them
in order and have them walk through their orbits, staying in position order
around the person named as the sun.
 Make up rhyming songs and motions to recall bones in the skeleton,
chemical names, action within an atom.

Language Arts
 Form the body into letter shapes
 Do an alphabet dance
 Class walk around letter signs, stop, everyone picks one up and identifies
something that begins with that letter or sound.
 Create a pattern and a rhyme, matching it to a repeated movement
 Act out prepositions
 Vocabulary: one person acts out one of the assigned words while the
partner names it.

Art
 Walk or run a pattern to express a line
 Draw a motion after demonstrating it
 Make shapes with the body
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Move It to Learn It © Sandra Sunquist Stanton NCC, LPC

 Act out a feeling, then draw it, choosing colors to match feeling

Social Studies
 Assign events to individual students, then have them line up as a timeline.
 Act out a story or historical event

Reed says, ―Teachers have concrete evidence — improved grades and fewer
discipline problems — after implementing specific movement skills in their
classes.‖

Catherine Dillon, Greenville South Carolina ESOL program lead teacher said, ―It
never occurred to me… that you can get a person to learn much more easily
doing a relay race than in a lecture.‖

+++++

An Overview from Connections of the Heart LLC -

Move It to Learn It: Visual-Proprioceptive-Ocular System Overview

Chair less classrooms are helping students stay focused. Exercise (Stability)
Balls replace traditional chairs, reportedly improving student focus, posture and
fitness all at the same time. The topic came up during a Health Ed Network
seminar I presented in St. Louis "Educational Applications of Current
Neuroscience". It follows Carla Hannaford's observations in her classic book
Smart Moves-All Learning Is Not In Your Head. Movement is essential for
learning. Children's need for movement is based in the Vestibular System and
the "Triad" described in workshops by Mary Kawar MS, OTR. Consulting with
colleagues to further educate myself and answer participant's questions about
the Visual – Proprioceptive-Ocular Systems, I acknowledge Anne Yockey MS,
OTR for her guidance and professional resources in this search. She
recommends workshops by Mary Kawar, MS, OTR for more information on these
topics.

Visual-Proprioceptive-Ocular System The Triad: Vestibular-Proprioceptive-


Ocular Systems are building blocks for higher level learning. We must look
beyond traditional auditory teaching approaches and engage this foundational
triad to create optimal learning. The integration of movement, eyes, ears and
mouth works best.

Visual Processing: Perfect 20/20 vision indicates only the clarity with which one
sees. The traditional eye chart does not reassure reading ability or visual

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Move It to Learn It © Sandra Sunquist Stanton NCC, LPC

function. Visual Information Processing is a more meaningful term; referring to


the visual processing skills necessary for learning and performance.

EMDR-Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing: Eye movements


correlate with emotional processing, so they can be used as a tool in healing.
Research has proven EMDR effective in psychotherapeutic treatment of PTSD
(Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). During EMDR, the client attends to emotionally
disturbing material while focusing on an external stimulus. The therapist directs
lateral eye movements, and uses hand tapping and audio stimulation. For more
information visit the association's website: http://www.emdr.com/briefdes.htm

Vestibular System: This system balances all sensory systems; very important
for learning. It‘s located in the three semicircular canals of the inner ear.
Vestibular receptors are the tiny hair cells (cristae) within the semicircular canals,
the utricle and saccule of the vestibular labyrinth. From Sensory Integration:
Theory and Practice Fisher, Murray and Bundy 1991The cochlea, also in the
inner ear, takes care of hearing. Because it‘s surrounded by a liquid [paralymph]
also shared with the vestibular system, vestibular stimulation can also improve
hearing.

Proprioceptive System: This senses spatial orientation and organization of


body parts through information arising form one‘s position and movement for
purposes of motor planning and control. It monitors intensity, rate, duration and
timing of force of movement needed under all circumstances, based on muscle
tension: how much and how fast a muscle is being stretched.

Proprioceptive Signals: They originate in muscles, ligaments, tendons and


joints, connective tissue and vibratory receptors in the bones. Feedback indicates
the degree of stretch registered in the endings of muscle spindles. Occupational
Therapists consider whether movement is active—originating from the
individual‘s own brain, or passive—created externally. This information is
adapted from workshop materials from Mary Kawar, MS, OTR.

A bit about your presenter…

6|©Connections of the Heart LLC


www.OurBrainBuddies.com
Move It to Learn It © Sandra Sunquist Stanton NCC, LPC

Sandra Sunquist Stanton NCC, LPC is a Nationally Certified Counselor and


Licensed Professional Counselor, holding current Wisconsin Dept of Public
Instruction Certifications as Teacher, Counselor, Principal and Director of
Curriculum. She served as Teacher and School Counselor for 25 years
beginning on an Air Force Base in Germany and ending at an NICS school in
Kunming China. A member of the collaborative B.R.A.I.N Team for Eau Claire
County since 2000, she presents Brain Coaching workshops for families, parent
groups, churches, and adult education seminars in Wisconsin and nationwide in
the US. Her website www.ourbrainbuddies.com offers Facebook, Twitter, Linked-
In, Newsletter links as well as publication credits, scheduled presentations and
educational products. She serves on the Advisory Board for UW-Stout School of
Education and the Health Ed Network continuing education company.

Bibliography:

Paul and Gail Dennison, Brain Gym, and Brain Gym, Teacher’s Edition Rev
Gurian, Boys and Girls Learn Differently
Carla Hannaford, Smart Moves: Why All Learning is Not in Your Head
Mary Kawar, M.O.R.E. Integrating the Mouth with Sensory and Postural
Functions- (Book and Video)
Mel Levine, A Mind at a Time
John Ratey, SPARK
Leonard Sax, Why Gender Matters, Boys Adrift, Girls on the Edge (2010)
Spencer-Gorin, Learning to Play, Playing to Learn
The Secret Life of the Brain
Chip Wood, Yardsticks

Websites:
www.OurBrainBuddies.com, Connections of the Heart LLC (additional resources
listed on this site)
www.brainconnection.com Scientific American
www.braingym.org Edu-Kinesthetics
www.vitallinks.net Mary Kawar –Vestibular Habilitation, M.O.R.E.
www.wittfitt.com Lisa Witt - Stability balls-classroom chairs)
www.moveintheclassroom.com Julian Reed
www.whygendermatters.com Leonard Sax
www.johnratey.com/newsite/index.html John Ratey-SPARK

I appreciate your presence and participation in this workshop! Taking this time to
take care of yourself and sharpening your own tools will help them ultimately

7|©Connections of the Heart LLC


www.OurBrainBuddies.com
Move It to Learn It © Sandra Sunquist Stanton NCC, LPC

reach their potential. You will never completely realize the tremendous impact
your work has for your students‘ lives, but I thank you for them.

Your questions or comments are welcome. Please email them to me at


Sandi@OurBrainBuddies.com and I will get back to you.

Thanks for inviting me to Amazing Alberta! Please let me know if there is


anything further I can do to help!

Sandi

8|©Connections of the Heart LLC


www.OurBrainBuddies.com

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