Math & Movement Blog - Posts for Educators and Parents

02Apr 2018 by suzy123 No Comments

Spring Activities

Activities

Here are some fun Spring activities you can use in your classroom to make math fun and active! Bunny Hop for Fours Make bunny ears. Whisper, "one." Bend left ear down (bend left-hand fingers forward). Whisper, "two." Bend right ear down (bend right-hand fingers forward). Whisper, "three." Clap‚ "FOUR!" Continue on to forty... Carrot Printable Print and cut out the carrots. Place them around the room. Students can bunny hop to gather them. For younger students: Have them add up all of their carrots! Write different numbers on the carrots for an added challenge. Students will add up the written numbers, instead of the actual amount of carrots. For older students: Write multiplication or division problems on the carrots and use them as flashcards! Download the free carrot printable [maxbutton id="1"…

30Mar 2018 by suzy123 No Comments

5 Reasons Why Social-Emotional Learning Should Be Taught in School

Research

1) Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) keeps students engaged in school In early elementary school, children learn how to play and be a good friend. Then, as students go through school, they become less engaged with social-emotional learning. Instead, they focus on academics through standardized testing and following school discipline. “In a national sample of 148,189 sixth to twelfth graders, 29%–45% reported that they had…empathy, decision making, and conflict resolution skills…only 29% indicated that their school provided a caring, encouraging environment” (Benson, 2006). 2) SEL helps students with emotions and relationships Students need social-emotional learning (SEL) as much as math, writing, or any other subject. SEL “builds children’s skills to recognize and manage their emotions, appreciate the perspectives of others, establish positive goals, make responsible decisions, and handle…

01Mar 2018 by suzy123 No Comments

Spatial Learning for At-Risk Students

Research, Uncategorized

From At-Risk to Einstein: Could Kinesthetic and Spatial Learning Be the Answer to Helping At-Risk Students Succeed? Where Standard Learning Falls Short The average five-year-old can have an attention span of five minutes. These short five minutes makes it challenging for educators to effectively communicate key concepts. Especially when they are sitting near talkative or restless peers or content is not presented in their natural learning style. Standard teaching approaches often focus on auditory methods and leave out kinesthetic and visual learners. “Because adolescents have not biologically developed strong auditory skills, at-risk students are particularly unlikely to remember at least 70 percent of what they hear or read and thus either do not read well or cannot maintain concentration when they are not interested in the required reading” (Honingsfeld,…

05Jul 2017 by suzy123 No Comments

Hopping Towards Mathematical Success

News

“Because movement is such a big part of culture, that’s why we’re using the Math & Movement mats,” says Gina Cordaro, a Rochester City School District teacher helping rewrite the curriculum. Gina explains how the Board of Education came to the decision that the standard Common Core curriculum isn’t helping their students reach their full potential. To support the students that have not responded successfully to the Common Core, Gina has been augmenting their learning with kinesthetic strategies and materials. She has been writing grants and purchasing Math & Movement mats for the past nine years. These days, Gina spends her time holding community math nights at different schools where parents, teachers, student teachers, and, most importantly, the children can jump and learn. The goal is to increase…

30Dec 2016 by suzy123 No Comments

Our Holiday Gift to You! A Lowe’s Toolbox for Education Draft Proposal

Grants, Opportunities

By Suzy Koontz We know you are wildly busy…so we are offering you a special holiday gift! We’d like to draft your Lowe’s Toolbox for Education application so you can easily apply for funding to bring Math & Movement to your school. Why would you want one written for you? How is that a gift??? Many of you on this email list have asked for help getting funding for Math & Movement materials. Lowe’s has been very supportive of this project for many schools in the past so we are helping other schools access this possible funding. If we draft it, you can refine and complete the application in just a few hours of time. If funded, you get to select the perfect materials for your school. Once you are…

20Dec 2016 by suzy123 No Comments

Holiday Multiples

Activities

Students form partner pairs and choose a multiple. Then, they will toss a holiday ornament back and forth to each other while skip counting by that multiple. Students could also toss a dreidel back and forth -- or any other holiday item! See if they can make it through the multiple faster next time!

12Dec 2016 by suzy123 No Comments

When It Is Ideal to Compare Yourself to Others

Research

By Suzy Koontz A very powerful assessment technique utilized by Math & Movement is the process of pre and post-testing participants. This gives us the ability to see how efficient our methods are for the topics covered during a short term event or a longer term implementation of the program in a classroom. This method is terrific for showing how participants improve their skills, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. For that, we need to compare these scores to scores from a control group. While we have known that comparing our participants to a control group is the ideal approach for demonstrating the effectiveness of the Math & Movement program, it has been challenging to get that kind of data; teachers have been overwhelmed with required assessments and we…

17May 2016 by suzy123 No Comments

Do You Love Math & Movement? Join Our Team!

Opportunities

By Suzy Koontz Math & Movement is a ground-breaking new educational program that combines physical fitness with learning and practicing math, reading, and other concepts. In just a few short years, Math & Movement has branched nationally and experienced exponential growth. Math & Movement is hiring part-time educational consultants. The time commitment can be low (a few hours a month) or high, depending on your schedule. You do not have to re-locate – you serve your community and nearby areas. You may also have the opportunity for national travel to present at conferences and offer training to teachers. Following are some of the paid opportunities offered to Math & Movement Consultants. A Math & Movement consultant: Leads Family Fun Nights Offers Math & Movement training for teachers/administrators Makes Math &…

17May 2016 by suzy123 No Comments

Take It Outside!

Activities

Pick a multiple and practice skip counting by that multiple while taking turns tossing the water balloon back and forth to a partner. If you drop the water balloon and it breaks, you have to do jumping jacks while skip counting by that multiple all by yourself.

02May 2016 by suzy123 No Comments

Finger Speed-Sums

Activities

The class breaks into partners and each partner has one hand behind their back. On the count of three, they each put forward some number of fingers. Whoever says the sum of both players' fingers first wins. Then the pair breaks up and each person finds a new person to play with. Older players can multiply instead of add.