I'm really excited to be linking up with GoNoodle for their Back to School Blogger Blitz! If you're looking to spice up your GoNoodle game, this is the place for you! Tons of fabulous bloggers are sharing how they use GoNoodle in their own classrooms, so get your GoNoodlin' shoes on and be sure to check it out!

I start out the year by explaining to my students that while GoNoodle is a lot of fun, we also do it to wake up our brains before learning. Over the summer, I took a grad class about movement in the classroom, and while I have always loved GoNoodle, I learned how truly valuable it is for the brain development amidst our busy schedule and demands placed on ourselves and our students. You can read more about the importance of movement here.

As we all know, the classroom dynamic changes based on the students we have. I had a very high energy class last year, so they needed lots of high energy brain breaks from KooKoo Kangaroo to Run Like the Kitty! This year, however, my students are a little more laid back and have also enjoyed some of the calming brain breaks. I need to be more mindful of this when making the selections. This group is really enjoying Maximo's yoga, so I am going to try and introduce more of these exercises to them.

I also love how GoNoodle is an instant incentive for my kids. They love it so much and never want to miss an opportunity to participate in the brain break! This has come in really handy at the beginning of the year. Since we're only 8 days into our school year, we are still using the bathroom together as a group. However, they know that after the bathroom break we do a GoNoodle. Because of this, they are spending less time in the bathroom, and we are getting through the line a lot faster! Additionally, I love using it as a surprise for good behavior! If my kiddos are doing exceptionally well, or one of my friends is having a really good day, we will celebrate with a GoNoodle brain break of their choice!

I also love incorporating GoNoodle into our regular learning of the content standards. You read two posts regarding how I do that here and here!

As part of the GoNoodle Blogger Blitz, every blogger is giving away a piece of GoNoodle swag! You can win this Canvas Champ Tote bag by entering the Rafflecopter below!

To make this blitz even better, GoNoodle is offering 15% off everything in the GoNoodle store, with the code BTSwithGoNoodle now through September 11! With all of the cute items in their store, I will definitely be ordering some new swag! Also, be sure to check out all of the other bloggers participating in this link up to read their ideas, and to also participate in their giveaways for a chance to win even more GoNoodle goodies!

Enjoy your weekend, and happy GoNoodling!

Over the summer I took a graduate course titled "A Moving Body, A Thinking Brain." As a mom of two busy little boys and a first grade teacher, this course and the text book provided a lot of validation to what I see in my children at home and at school.

One of the biggest takeaways from this course is that I need to be aware of my students and their developing vestibular system. The vestibular system creates our sense of balance, using motion and gravity. The result of a developed vestibular system is the ability to sit still, listen, and learn. 

In the summer of 2014, TimberNook published an article titled, "Why Children Fidget: And what we can do about it." The author, a pediatric occupational therapist, observed and tested students. They discovered that an overwhelming majority of students have an underdeveloped vestibular system when comparing them to children in the 1980's! Therefore, our students are having difficulty sitting still and paying attention in class due to an underdeveloped vestibular system! The result is students having difficulty focusing and fidgeting through lessons. 

The fidgeting that teachers are seeing is actually an involuntary response by the student's brain. When students lose focus, the brain tries to get that focus back through moving the body (fidgeting). Essentially, the brain is trying to wake itself up through movement. Therefore, teachers who try to get students to stop fidgeting are most likely fighting a losing battle because the student is not voluntarily controlling the fidgeting. This will also result in frustration for both the student and teacher when the actions do not stop.

These findings beg the question, could some students suspected to have ADHD just not have a fully developed vestibular system?

The moral of the story is that if we want students to concentrate and focus during class time, we have to give them many opportunities to move. We need to strengthen their vestibular systems so they are physically fit to sit and learn. Essentially, children should be freely and actively playing for multiple hours each day.

You may be asking how we can do this when we are in the classroom the whole day. One of the easiest ways is by incorporating brain breaks into you classroom. You can do this on your own with counting exercises and songs, or you can use a wonderfully teacher and student friendly site called GoNoodle. GoNoodle is a free internet site that teachers (and parents) can join to get their children moving. It offers brain breaks ranging in different time lengths,and includes a wide variety of activities like yoga, Olympic events, and funny songs (with lots of moving and dancing).

We can also incorporate as much movement into our lessons as possible. Instead of clapping syllables in a word, students can hop the syllables. Instead of measuring lines on paper, take them outside and measure the length of the bars on the jungle gym. Instead of saying the counting patterns out loud, throw balls across the room in a pattern while continuing the counting pattern each time the ball is thrown. The possibilities are endless!!

While I have always been a strong proponent of movement in the classroom, I will also be handling my conversations with parents a little differently. Now, when parents raise concerns about their child's difficulty focusing and fidgeting, I am going to pose the question: "How much time each day does your child have for active play?"

Hi everyone, Becky here! I wanted to share a really fun and motivating activity my kiddos just finished this week. If your kids are like mine, they can taste the start of summer (just like us!), but we still need to motivate them to think creatively and apply the skills we have worked so hard to teach them all year. Insert GoNoodle's Secret Handshakes! My kids LOVE GoNoodle, so I instantly knew that anything GoNoodle related would be a huge motivator! I announced to the class that they would be creating their own secret handshake with a partner, and they went nuts!

We began the project by watching and doing all four of KooKoo Kangaroo's Secret handshakes. I also asked them to pay attention to the motions/movements while doing the GoNoodle piece. After the handshakes were completed, we came up with a list of the different types of motions we noticed in the clips, and also added other categories we thought would help us create our ownl

I then sent them off to work with their partner to brainstorm the different movements they wanted to incorporate into their secret handshake. We thought about how the Mash Up's at the end of KooKoo Kangaroo's videos usually had three different steps, and agreed that two to three steps would be appropriate for our own secret handshakes. 

Once the decisions were made, the students wrote out their steps and gave it a name. This part was a lot of trial and error for my kids. They had too see how the different movements worked together, what may need to be switched, and what they thought they were capable of doing in comparison with what they really could do! It must have been hilarious walking by my room during this phase because in one blink you may have seen ballerina, penguin, or baseball motions! 

When my kids felt like they were ready to debut their secret handshake, they came up and showed the class, and then we all tried to do it together! There was a lot of laughing together through this part, and an all around good time! I just have to share some of them with you! They still have me cracking up!

Once the steps were written, my kids spent some time practicing their secret handshakes, in preparation for recording and class participation. They also decided that we needed a background like KooKoo Kangaroo, so we pulled up some GoNoodle Champs and picked a few to print out and decorate on some butcher paper!

This activity really showed me how much my first graders have grown up this year! Their growth in maturity allowed them to work together and make compromises with their ideas for the handshake motions. The trial and error part of this lesson was also huge, because it showed me that they were analyzing and reflecting on what they were doing and being honest about what they thought, or recognizing if any changes were necessary.

If you have a few more days left of school, I would recommend doing this activity with your kiddos! Watch out KooKoo Kangaroo! You may have some secret handshake competition!