Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/moving-teachers-to-move-children/5009746/
I regularly find myself smiling when watching teachers conduct circle time. Most intersperse their stories, songs, and calendar times with reminders, "Jamal, you need to sit on your bottom." "Amanda, your feet need to stay still." The truth is, if these little bodies needed to be still, they would. It is the teacher who needs the children to sit still, not the children themselves.Children always bring their bodies to our classrooms (or should I say their bodies bring them?). Yet very quickly they get the message that it is only their minds we value. Indoors, where children spend most of their time, those bodies are merely tolerated, if not punished. True, teachers dutifully schedule gross motor time on curriculum plans. But the typical goal for this is to have children run off excess energy so they will be more manageable during the teaching activities taking place inside. Those who understand the importance of physical development in young children's lives still tend to plan for it as an activity separate from other learning.
The articles in this issue of Beginnings remind us that motion is central to the needs of young children, not only ...