Movement Breaks - Fitness

Teaching Year 2's it is very important to give them regular movement breaks and release some energy.

Each morning just before writing the children and I do a Jump Jam song. I usually have this music on my phone and I use my speaker. The children watch and copy me as they dance. The children have really enjoyed this as their teacher is getting involved and dancing too. I am constantly calling out positive praise and reinforcing those children who are doing the right thing and are making good choices.

One negative is that if there are children down the back of the room who are not making good choices and aren't keeping their hands and feet to themselves, I can't stop and go sort the problem straight away as the children are copying me. It is not as effective sorting the problem later as it is sorting it straight away. I have set up more boundaries, e.g. have the children all in places in the room where I can see them, repeating songs so that the children are familiar with them and do not need to rely on watching me, spotting a top girl and boy who are giving it their all, having those children who struggle to manage themselves to dance near me.

I have recently trialed using the data projector and the children watch the dances on here. This means the children are not watching me and this frees me up to dance near those children who struggle to manage themselves. Once negative about this is that it takes longer to set up and sometimes it doesn't work. But this is great when it all goes to plan!