How can I energize my students in math class?: Movement in Mathematics
Description
As a drama major, I have gained a passion for the Creative Movement unit in both P.E. and Drama. I have also enjoyed teaching the grade 4 Health and Wellness Choices unit and have learned how important physical activity is particularly to elementary students. I have noticed that the more active the students are, the more they are happy and ready to learn. I wanted to research something that I felt would benefit student learning the best. When I would teach math, I noticed how some students would get bored or tired of what I was teaching on the board. It was hard to sit down in a seat for multiple hours in the day for a lot of the students. Through teaching the Creative Movement Unit in P.E., I was able to observe that a lot of the grade 4 students who had troubles in math thoroughly enjoyed movement and physical activity in general. It made me think that it would be beneficial to focus on involving movement games to energize engage students in learning math.
While studying movement, I would read countless articles that stay how the brain, mind and body are connected. I've been reading how the part of the brain that is most associated with motor control is the cerebellum which is located at the back of the brain and contains half of the brains neutrons. The fibres from that area feed data back to the cortex and influences most of the brain. The cerebellum plays a huge part specifically in memory, attention and spatial perception. From what I have been reading, movement can help improve focus, readiness and overall ability to learn and retain information.
While studying movement, I would read countless articles that stay how the brain, mind and body are connected. I've been reading how the part of the brain that is most associated with motor control is the cerebellum which is located at the back of the brain and contains half of the brains neutrons. The fibres from that area feed data back to the cortex and influences most of the brain. The cerebellum plays a huge part specifically in memory, attention and spatial perception. From what I have been reading, movement can help improve focus, readiness and overall ability to learn and retain information.
Method
I wanted to figure out the best movement games for a handbook repetoire of movement activities. Some Movement activities worked well and was useful for what we were talking about in math. Whereas some movement games I experimented with did not go so well and either did not enhance student learning or was a distraction to the class. I only included the activities that I felt was useful or worked well. I researched a lot of the movement games online or books from the curriculum library but also created my own classroom movement games
I noticed a few things that improved while incorporating more movement activities in math. The two most noticeable differences were that students seemed to have more energy to learn when I incorporated movement activities as opposed to normal math routines of the teacher teaching at the front board and then students practicing on paper. The other major difference was I found it helped the exceptional learners. With one student in particular, I found it helped immensley with focus.
I noticed a few things that improved while incorporating more movement activities in math. The two most noticeable differences were that students seemed to have more energy to learn when I incorporated movement activities as opposed to normal math routines of the teacher teaching at the front board and then students practicing on paper. The other major difference was I found it helped the exceptional learners. With one student in particular, I found it helped immensley with focus.
Results... so far
I noticed a few things that improved while incorporating more movement activities in math. The two most noticeable differences were that students seemed to have more energy to learn when I incorporated movement activities as opposed to normal math routines of the teacher teaching at the front board and then students practicing on paper. The other major difference was I found it helped the exceptional learners. With one student in particular, I found it helped immensley with focus. Another result that I found was it really helped with student memory when students connected a math concept to a particular movement.