Cross-Lateral Movements: All About the Midline of the Body
Find out how cross lateral movements, or cross crawl exercises, can boost learning by crossing the midline of body.
Below is our interview with Jennifer Coughlin, a K-5 Math Coach and 5th-6th Grade Math Specialist at George Fisher Middle School in Carmel Central School District, located in the Hudson Valley in NY.
I currently am a K-5 Mathematics Coach and 5th/6th grade Math Specialist at George Fisher Middle School in the Carmel Central School District (Carmel, NY). I just started my 24th year teaching. I have also taught kindergarten and third grade.
I learned about Math & Movement when I attended the New York City Mathematics Project Annual Conference last year and Suzy was the keynote speaker. I applied for both the Lowe’s Toolbox for Education and Community Foundations grants and received $7,500. This allowed me to purchase various mats and attend the Math & Movement Summer Institute where I was trained on how to use the mats with students.
This is the first year I’m using Math & Movement in my classroom, as well as with other teachers around the district.
My students are more engaged, motivated, and confident since we have started using Math & Movement.
My favorite floor mats are the Add/Subtract Mat, Place Value Hop, Factor Fun, Clock Hop, and all the Skip Counting mats, too! I love using all these mats, but my favorite is the Add/Subtract Mat because it provides a visual model to show arrays, multiplication, the distributive property, area, and perimeter.
For example, to show the distributive property, I use different colored post-its to break up the arrays into smaller parts, which makes an abstract concept more accessible to students. So many concepts can be taught with just one mat!
These colorful, large floor mats and stickers depict the numbers 1 to 100 in a 10×10 grid. Practice a wide variety of math concepts, including counting, addition, and subtraction by hopping on each number block! Select your material choice and size below.
Find out how cross lateral movements, or cross crawl exercises, can boost learning by crossing the midline of body.
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