If you teach kindergarten, you know how hard it is to keep your student’s little attention spans engaged. During much of the school day, they’re told to sit in their rug squares, sit at their tables or do something quietly so they don’t disturb their classmates. For a 5 or 6 year old, this is very hard. Which is why if you’re a kindergarten teacher, you better be switching it up all the time in order for learning to stick. I’ve found that incorporating movement into kindergarten lesson plans is the easiest way to keep your kiddos attention. The best part is you can do it with whatever curriculum you’re already using!
How to Implement Lesson Plans with Movement
Movement can be added to ANY lesson plan. You just have to be creative and be willing to experiment! When I first started teaching, I stuck to what the teacher book said. I read through the lesson the week before and then a couple days before and then even right before the lesson to make sure I knew what I was teaching and how I was supposed to teach it. This is pretty common with new teachers because well you’re new! Plus, being a new teacher is overwhelming. There’s so much you have to teach, you’re getting used to the standards and curriculum and completing all the extras that come along with this profession.
Once I felt a little more comfortable in all I was teaching, the way I planned my lessons changed. I wouldn’t just read through the lesson and study what I needed to do in order to teach it. I would read the lesson and then figure out how I could spin it to still teach the lesson and standards, but how to make it more engaging. This is where I found movement to be crucial. When planning lessons, I would think about all the ways movement can be added.
Movement Ideas
There’s so many ways you can include movement into your everyday lessons. Some ideas are:
- Freeze Dance
- Write the Rooms
- Take them Outside
- Charades
- Racing
- Ball Games
- Body Motions
- Hand signals
Lesson Plans with Music
One way to get students moving is through music. There are so many times, I play music in the classroom and engagement automatically heightens just through this simple step of adding music. Some of my favorite music resources are KidzBop, Spotify and GoNoodle.
You can play music:
- While students are at their tables completing an activity – I like to find a slower, calming type of music for this
- During math games – more upbeat, fun music
- As a brain break (GoNoodle)
- To remember vocabulary words – we did this through our song of the week
Movement Lesson Plans Kindergarten Language Arts
There are countless ways to turn your language arts lessons into lessons with movement. I’ve linked a few ways below. However, my all time favorite way to get kindergarteners engaged through movement is with “write the room” style activities. For those of you who are unfamiliar, a “write the room” activity is when you put something around the room (a lot of teachers do this with seasonal vocabulary) and students walk around with a clipboard, find the word and copy it down on their paper. At first, this is all I did with write the room too. This is a great way to get students writing and practicing their letters and sounds, but there’s a whole lot more you can do with this “write the room” concept.
4 Movement Activities to Teach Verbs
Teaching Setting in Kindergarten
Sight Word Run the Room – A Sight Word Movement Game
Movement Lesson Plans Kindergarten Math
There are also many ways to incorporate movement into you’re math lessons. Depending on what you’re teaching, you could use a racing style game. A lot of teachers use this for math facts (probably good for later in the year in kindergarten). My favorite movement game a game I use for teaching counting and skip counting. Students stand in a circle, take turns counting (or skip counting) to a certain number and then once they get to the number, that person sits.
If you use guided math in your classroom, it’s really easy to incorporate movement in both your “meet with teacher” station and “hands on” or “game” station.
Everything You Need to Know to Launch Guided Math in Your Classroom
Hands on Learning
When you teach kindergarten, you have to find ways to reach your students. Hands on learning is a great way to make your lesson plans fun and engaging. Using movement pairs well with hands on learning.
Ways to incorporate movement into your hands on learning lessons:
- Centers
- Write the Room Activities
- Games
- Racing
- Passing Games
Guided Math Centers: What are students doing when they’re not meeting with me?
Do you add movement to your kindergarten lesson plans? Share how below!
