Learning & Development Movement: Part 1 - Jump to it!

Photograph at Coombes School, Reading by Teri Pengilley.

Just as children learn to play and play to learn, they learn to move and learn through movement. Not only do they need to learn by doing through child-initiated activities; they also need to be taught, hence the movement session.

Two or three times a week children need a planned movement session, in a programme of lessons across a term and a year. In this series, I will offer ideas for movement sessions under the headings below, and you can add to and develop the ideas to make a series of lessons to cover three or four weeks and so build up a package that can run throughout the year:

- Movement generally

- Movement and language

- Movement and stories

- Movement and music

- Movement and songs

- Movement and resources.

BEFORE GETTING STARTED

- Find a space - either use a hall, or move all the furniture back and use the space created. Make sure the floor is clear of bits and that there are no table corners sticking out.

- Have the children go barefoot and dressed in vest and pants, or T-shirt and shorts, or their daily clothing as long as it doesn't impede their movements.

- Encourage the children to change themselves. Initially, they will need help and clothing will have to be presented the right way round, ready to be put on. Articles of clothing such as socks and tights will need to be turned the right way round; start children off by putting the sock on the end of the foot and get them to pull it up. Remember that some buttons can challenge us adults, so don't expect too much from the youngest children.

- Establish a stop-and-start routine - a tap of the tambourine with 'and go', or a tap of the tambourine accompanied by 'and stop'. Always stop and start in the same way.

- Establish a safety rule that covers all eventualities, such as 'care for each other' - meaning don't push, don't shout, don't look one way while running another, and so on.

- Decide on the length of the lesson: the younger the child, the shorter the session. Three- and four-year-olds should have ten to 15 minutes, four- and five-year-olds 15 to 20 minutes, but then you have to add changing time. The less experience the children have of movement and the younger they are, the longer it will take. But of course, this part of the lesson is as important as the set teaching part.

BENEFITS

Through movement sessions, children learn:

- about parts of the body and how they work

- how to move the body and become more aware of it

- about their body in space, how to manoeuvre it, particularly in relationship to other people

- words, and how to use them, that describe: body parts (hands, hip, muscles, calf, ball of foot), types of movement (whirl, slither, dart, glide) and what is special about that movement (light, heavy, slow, quick, flowing)

- how to work as a group. A number of children involved in a movement session have to be accountable to one another, or it doesn't work.

Part 2 will appear in Nursery World on 17 July

- Helen Bilton is the author of several books on outdoor play for the early years, and PGCE programme director at the University of Reading

LINKS TO EYFS GUIDANCE

- UC 1.4 Health and Well-being

- PR 2.3 Supporting Learning

- L&D Physical development, pp90-103

THE MOVEMENT SESSION

1. Warming up

Ask the children to:

- form a circle, so that they can see each other

- shake their hands, then arms, then one foot, then the other, then their whole body. Shaking can be changed to stretching or twisting parts of the body or making parts floppy, stiff and so on, so enabling the children to identify and understand the components of the body.

- look at or consider how the body part feels as the movement is made or to watch the part moving - in this way those children who need differentiated work can also concentrate on this.

2. The main teaching session

- Ensure you know what you are aiming to teach and how it links to the last lesson - for example, the basic movements of walking, running, skipping, hopping and jumping and how to complete them properly.

- Reassure the children that if they don't think they can do a movement, it's fine, but in time they will.

- Get children to find a space; this will take children a long time to grasp, maybe weeks, more likely months.

- Ask the children to move about the room/space walking as though walking along the road. Explain safety - keep eyes ahead, always look so you don't bump into anyone. When the tambourine is hit, they must stop immediately. Repeat with running, skipping, hopping, jumping, but it could be that they can only manage walking and running, so that is the finish of this part. Once again, get them to think about different bits of the body - for example, when running, discuss the ball of the foot, taking the heel off the floor to run. To develop the lesson, you can tell the children you are going to ask them to change the movement immediately the tambourine is hit. So they could be running and you say, 'When I hit the tambourine I want you to change the movement to skipping', or 'When I hit the tambourine, change direction' and they immediately change direction. You can add the speed of the movement - 'When I hit the tambourine I want you to continue running but quickly, lightly'.

- At some point you can divide the group in half and get one half to watch the other, and then change. Tell them what to look out for -'check everyone is on the ball of their foot when running', 'make sure the arms are to the side of the body when running', 'arms swinging when walking', 'not walking on the sides of the foot', and so on.

- Advice for skipping and hopping could include, 'A skip is really one hop followed quickly by another hop on the other foot', 'Remember to think about what you want the body to do and the body will follow it', 'Don't forget to swing your arms when hopping to help you get off the ground'.

3. Warm down

- In this part of the session, children need to stop not suddenly but gradually, so their bodies recover easily and the muscles relax. This makes them aware the session is finished and has a proper end.

- Have the children walk around the room reasonably slowly and as they pass someone, smile and gently touch hands. Get them to move slower and slower. Finally, ask them to lie down and stretch their arms, hands, legs and feet, and then play sleeping lions. Say, 'I will come round and touch you on the (name a part of the body) and you may get up and put on your socks and shoes.' Choose those children first who have the most difficulty changing.

- Praise the children's efforts, mentioning not individuals but very specific teaching points - 'You are all doing so well with pointing your toes', 'You are all jumping so high when you skip', 'I love the tall straight backs when walking'.