Teachers in Living Sky School Division鈥檚 pre-kindergarten programs are learning to use five-minute intervals of specific physical activity to increase their young students鈥� emotional balance and attention spans.
Teachers and students are being trained to make up for some developmental deficits that are affecting many, if not most, of today鈥檚 students.聽聽聽
Dancer and educator Ashley Johnson, through a Saskatchewan Culture Grant, provides professional development to each of the pre-kindergarten teachers and educational assistants, including a visit to each of their classrooms.
These developmental deficits result, according to Johnson, from a combination of too much screen time for young children, and too much of the day spent restrained in car seats and high chairs. As well, other parents may be over attentive 鈥渉elicopter parents鈥� who don鈥檛 let children do enough for themselves. The answer in terms of increasing their ability to learn is more movement, much more.
Among the challenges faced by Living Sky鈥檚 pre-kindergarten teachers and educational assistants is how to use limited classroom space and even more limited school hours to enhance their students鈥� well-being in this regard. In order to develop greater body awareness and spatial sense, Johnson is training them to use five-minute periods of brain dance within the existing space in their classroom. This involves considerable creativity on the part of the teachers, and is slightly different in each of the 10 pre-kindergarten classrooms.
While there is an obvious and almost immediate improvement in children鈥檚 fine and gross motor skills through these activities, there is also a very real improvement in their ability to learn. Johnson stresses the use of balance and activities that involve both sides of the body in crossover patterning. Through the connection between mind and body, this helps students pay better attention to their learning and be more balanced emotionally, as well as physically.
But what can parents do to help? Johnson suggests that parents 鈥済et out of the way鈥� and let children do more for themselves, spending less time looking at an electronic screen and restrained in high chairs and bucket seats. It is natural for children to struggle, crawling, sitting up and even falling over. If they are kept from doing this for whatever reason, they don鈥檛 develop the same confidence and independence over time. While it鈥檚 odd to suggest that parents do less, in this case it seems to be part of the answer.
鈥淭here won鈥檛 be a huge shift at first,鈥� Johnson warns, but over time students will make better choices and have an easier time learning as dance, movement and balance become more a part of their daily lives.
