May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month, and after a year of spending a whole lot of time in front of computer screens, kids could use it more now than ever! Experts have been warning us that the reduction in physical activity could have long-term effects on our kids, hiking childhood obesity rates and presenting higher risks for diabetes and cardiovascular issues. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do something about it.
Looking to incorporate more active movement in your classroom? Held annually, National Physical Fitness and Sports Month aims to bring attention to the importance of staying active by participating in physical activity.
With the weather improving around the country, it’s a perfect opportunity for you to do some active learning and find out about the benefits of physical fitness with your class. Whether you’re looking for brain breaks that help them get the wiggles out or ways to incorporate movement into the active learning process, we’ve got you covered.
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First off, let’s talk about some of the benefits beyond fighting off those risks: Not only is physical fitness great for little bodies (and grown-up ones!), but it also does wonderful things for little minds.
A study from the University of Illinois showed that children who are physically fit are more likely to perform better in school and achieve higher grades.
What better reason do you need to embrace the benefits of physical fitness in your classroom? Let us help you with some amazing fitness games and activities your students will love. Not only are they amazingly fun resources, but they are also designed specifically with learning in mind.
Active Learning Activities for Your Classroom
You can check out the hashtag #MoveinMay on your favorite social media platform for some active learning activities, or you can just follow along with these guides for kids of all ages!
Weekly Active Learning Guides
These amazing resources give your class everything they need to get active with their learning.
We think staying active in the classroom is important so we have created weekly active learning guides to get you through the month of May! Each day of the week focuses on a different learning area, and the activities are sure to get your students out of their seats and learning – all at the same time! And you don’t have to stick to May: The best thing is that these resources are also in editable Word format – you can reuse them again and again!
Review all of your curriculum codes and have fun while doing it:
- Mondays we are ‘Moving in Mathematics‘
- Tuesdays it is ‘Grammar on the Go’
- Wednesdays we have ‘Physical Phonics‘ for k–1 and 2–3, and ‘Shuffling Through Science‘ for 4–5
- Thursdays we are ‘Speeding Around Spelling‘
- Fridays we are doing the ‘Sight Word Shuffle’ for k–1 and ‘Vocabulary with Vigor’ for 2–3 and 4–5!
These Active Learning Guide Resource Packs provide you with a weekly guide and links to resources you will need for the week.
Get ready for Week 1!
Let’s Get Active in Kindergarten and Grade 1 – Week 1
Use this planning guide and set of resources to get your students active and learning in the early grades.
This resource pack includes everything you will need to get your kindergarten and 1st-grade students up and moving during week 1.
Here’s a taste of what’s in this pack:
Let’s Get Active in Grades 2 and 3 – Week 1
This resource pack includes everything you will need to get your grade 2 and 3 students active during week 1. Let’s get our students to #moveinMay!
Let’s Get Active in Grades 4 and 5 – Week 1
Your older students will love the opportunity to get active in the classroom and practice their mental math skills, as well as their parts of speech and quick thinking skills in the vocabulary with vigor!
You don’t need much to use this amazing resource pack! Download the Active Learning Guide for Grades 4 and 5 – Week 1 and Giant Letter Tiles with Numbers – Uppercase, and you’re ready to go.
Additional Fun Classroom Fitness
If you’re hungry for more, we have plenty of fitness-related classroom resources to help your class get physical!
For some fun brain break active learning ideas, dive right into the Learning Through Play | Active Learning Games blog! It’s jam-packed full of resources from our Active Learning Resource Pack.
If you’re after some pure and simple fitness games to give your kids’ brains a rest, then we can help with that too!
Resources such as our Fitness Bingo are the perfect go-to activity when your students just need a little bit of movement.
Your students will have such a great time moving their bodies and being healthy at school, and let’s face it: You will too! The options are endless when it comes to experiencing the benefits of physical activity in the classroom.
Yoga in the Classroom
Looking for some more quiet movement options? We’ve got 16 yoga poses that are perfect for kids, encouraging mindfulness and movement at the same time — a two-for-one! Not sure you’re up for teaching yoga to kids when you’re a classroom teacher, not a yoga teacher? We’ve got you covered there too: Check out our tips for teaching yoga in the classroom.
What are you doing to #MoveInMay this National Physical Fitness and Sports Month?
The post Active Learning Resources to Get the Most Out of National Physical Fitness and Sports Month appeared first on Teach Starter.