Do you have a class full of wiggle worms? It might be time to rethink how you're using movement in the classroom! We’re sharing five easy and effective ways to add movement to lessons without losing valuable instructional time.

These simple strategies help channel student energy into purposeful learning, improve focus, and even reduce behavior issues—turning your classroom into a more engaging and dynamic space. Whether it’s interactive comprehension checks or quick brain breaks, you’ll walk away with practical ideas to make movement a powerful part of your teaching routine!

Prefer to read? Grab the episode transcript and all resources mentioned in the show notes here: https://www.secondstorywindow.net/podcast/add-movement-to-lessons/

Resources:

• Printable Brain Break Activities
• Neuro-Mag Magnesium L-Threonate
• Connect with us on Instagram @2ndstorywindow.
• Shop our teacher-approved resources.
• Join our Teacher Approved Facebook group.
• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

Related Episodes to Enjoy:

• Episode 163, The 6 Key Ways to Boost Student Engagement Every Day
• Episode 50, 3 Guidelines to Make Classroom Transitions Work Smarter No Harder
• Episode 49, Rapid Classroom Transitions: How to Save 45 Hours a Year
• Episode 48, How to Make Classroom Transitions Simple With Clear Beginnings and Endings

This is episode 191 of Teacher Approved.

You're listening to Teacher Approved, the podcast helping

educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I'm

Heidi.

And I'm Emily. We're the creators behind Second Story

Window, where we give research based and teacher approved

strategies that make teaching less stressful and more

effective. You can check out the show notes and resources from

each episode at secondstorywindow.net.

We're so glad you're tuning in today. Let's get to

the show.

Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today's

episode, we're sharing five simple ways to add movement to

your lessons without losing instructional time, and a

teacher approved tip for managing wiggly students right

before lunch.

Let's start with a try it tomorrow, where we share a quick

win that you can try in your classroom right away. Emily,

what is our prompt for this week?

This week, try adding sparkle fingers to your

transition routine.

I love this so much.

I know okay. So when you need students to stop what

they're doing and listen for directions, have them raise

their hands and wiggle their fingers silently while they wait

for everyone to get ready.

This is so fun. It's so cute. It gives those fidgety

bodies something to do with their hands without making

noise. And bonus, you can easily see who's ready. And when all of

those little fingers are wiggling in the air, it actually

creates a pretty magical moment in your classroom.

I can picture it right now. It's so cute. If you like

this idea, or anything else we share here on the podcast, would

you take a second and give us a five star rating on Apple

podcasts? Ratings and reviews are one way that new listeners

find us, so every rating and review really is a huge help to

us.

All right, Emily, why do we need to talk about movement

in the classroom?

Well, think about how you feel after sitting through a

long staff meeting. I can hear the groans. Your back starts to

ache, your mind wanders, and you're counting down the minutes

until you can get up and move around and get the heck out of

there, right?

Exactly. And now I imagine being seven years old

and trying to sit still for hours at a time. The reality is

that kids are designed to move, their growing bodies actually

need movement, not just for physical development, but for

cognitive development too.

Yeah, because movement increases blood flow to the

brain, which means more oxygen and nutrients are getting

delivered to those adorable little brain cells, and that

translates to better focus, improved learning and, dare I

say it, fewer behavior issues.

But I know, I know the resistance that teachers have to

this. I know you're thinking, I have standards to cover and not

enough time as it is. How am I supposed to add movement without

falling even more behind?

So that's the beauty of what we're sharing today. These

are not separate activities that take time away from your

curriculum. We're going to share some ways to integrate movement

into your existing lessons.

So this isn't about choosing between movement or

instruction. You're enhancing your instruction with movement.

And you know, for those of you teaching upper elementary, don't

click away.

No, these strategies work for big kids too. They might

roll their eyes at first, but trust me, they need the movement

just as much as the little ones, though you might have to work

really hard to get them on board with the sparkle fingers idea,

just saying.

But it would be worth it.

Yes, if you could do it, I'd love to see a picture.

All right, let's jump into our five ways to add

movement to your lessons. Strategy number one is act it

out. Can you tell us about this one, Emily?

Yeah, when your students can become the learning they're

going to remember it so much better. This works especially

well in subjects like reading, science, and social studies.

It's about getting their whole bodies involved in understanding

a concept.

I used to do this with vocabulary words all the time.

If we were learning a word like collapse, I'd have the kids

stand up and, you know, literally collapse to the floor

like a pile of blocks, and then we'd use it in a sentence as we

stood back up.

I love that, because you know they never forgot that word

after doing it like that. Our brains are wired to remember

things that involve movement and emotion, so this strategy really

locks in the learning, which is our goal, right?

And this strategy works for sequencing too. If you're

teaching the water cycle, for example, you can have your kids

move around the room pretending to be water droplets. They

evaporate by rising on their toes, condensed by huddling

together and fall down as precipitation.

Oh, so cute. And you'll hear some giggles, for sure, but

you'll also see the learning in action. I have found this

approach particularly powerful for visual and kinesthetic

learners who might struggle with just hearing or reading

information.

And the great thing about acting it out is that it creates

these strong mental images that students can recall later. When

test time comes and they are trying to remember the water

cycle, they'll easily remember physically moving through it.

Exactly, so you can create movement anchors for

almost any subject. Just think about the key vocabulary or

concepts you want students to remember and brainstorm some

simple movements to go with them.

Alright, let's move on to strategy number two. Stand If

statements.

I love this. It's such a simple way to get kids moving

and get some sneaky checks for understanding at the same time.

So you make a statement and students stand if it applies to

So for example, in a science lesson about habitat,

them.

you might say, stand if a fish would live in the desert. Then

students have to process that information and decide to stand,

or, you know, stay seated.

Or in math, you could say stand if seven times eight is

greater than 50. Or in reading, you could try, stand if you

think the main character made a good decision in chapter three.

What I love about this strategy is that it gives you,

as the teacher, immediate visual feedback about student

understanding. You know, if half of your class is standing when

they shouldn't be, you know you need to revisit a concept.

And it gives every student a chance to respond, not

just the one who raised their hand, plus that simple act of

standing and sitting is enough movement to help reset focus.

Just keep in mind that these movement based checks are

maybe not always reliable for deep assessment. Your students

that are unsure will often look around and copy what their

classmates are doing. So these type of strategies are best used

for engagement and quick informal checks rather than

truly measuring mastery.

Yeah, that's a really good point. I always treated

these as temperature checks. They give you a general sense of

the room, but not precise data on each student. If I saw a lot

of confusion, I'd follow up with more individual assessment

later.

And building on this idea, we can also use movement

to show understanding in other ways. This works great for true

false questions, multiple choice, or even just, you know,

general comprehension checks.

For example, you might say, if the sentence is a

statement, touch your head. If it's a question, touch your

toes. Or show me a right angle with your arms, or even hop once

for each syllable in this word.

I like to think of these as human whiteboards. Instead of

writing their answers, the student showed it with their

body. It kept everyone engaged. And it, you know, gave me a fast

way to kind of see who was getting it.

For a little extra fun, you can mix in some personal

stand if statements too. This would be really fun at morning

meeting. You could do stand if you have a pet, stand if you

like pizza. It builds classroom community while giving kids more

chances to move.

Now let's talk about movement strategy number three,

learning stations or rotations.

Oh, yeah, moving between stations is such a natural way

to incorporate movement. Instead of doing all your math

activities at their desks, set up three to four different

stations around the room and have students rotate around

every 10 to 15 minutes.

Even just that short walk between stations gives kids a

chance to move their bodies, and it naturally breaks up the

learning into more manageable chunks.

And remember, your stations don't have to be

elaborate. One station might be a worksheet at their desks.

Another might be a math game at the back table, and a third

could be a problem solving activity on the carpet.

Or you could even designate different parts of the

room for different types of thinking. Maybe the front carpet

is for collaborative discussion and desks are for independent

work, and save the back table for your teacher led

instruction.

The beauty of this approach is that you're not

adding any new activities to your day. You're just changing

where students do the activities you've already planned.

And if you are worried about transitions, which can be

tricky with this type of setting, we have got lots of

tips for that. Go back and check out episodes 48, 49 and 50,

where we deep dive into making transition smoother.

Yes, and there's great ideas in there for incorporating

movement into the way you do your transition. So those that's

a great series to check out if you haven't listened to it yet.

Okay. Now strategy number four is one of my favorites. So tell

us about this. Heidi, it's academic movement games.

I love using games to teach. So this is where you take

a familiar game or activity and adapt it to reinforce academic

content. These are so great to use near the end of the day, you

know, when the kids energy is maybe starting to fade a little

bit.

Yeah. So one example is sight word freeze dance. So you

can play music and have students dance, and when the music stops,

you hold up a sight word card, and then students have to read

it correctly before the dancing continues.

Another fun one is vocabulary charades, where

students act out vocabulary words while others guess. This

was always a hit with my second graders when learning about

science terminology.

Or even something as simple as equation scavenger

hunt. You can hide index cards with math problems around the

room, and students find a card, solve the problem and bring it

to you to check before finding another one.

Having kids hunt for their own work to do will get

them to do way more work than just having a worksheet will.

Ah, true story.

Another way to pair learning and movement is to just

use the walls in your classroom. If your students are stuck in

their seats, try turning your classroom into an interactive

space. Post questions, vocabulary cards, math facts or

even sentence strips around the room, if you still have sentence

strips, and you have your students walk around and

respond.

And we love to do this with an end of your cumulative

review that we just call an around the room review activity,

and we just stick up the questions around the room, and

they walk around with clipboards and answer the questions. And

suddenly the exact same questions that they would groan

throughout their desks become an exciting adventure, because they

got to stand up and use clipboards.

A similar idea is to do four corners questions. You

label each corner of the room with a multiple choice answer,

A, B, C and D, and then you have students walk to their answer.

It's a quick way to gauge understanding and get some

movement in. And it's even more fun if your question has more

than one possible correct answer. So then you can have

some discussion about why they chose corner A, and why those

kids chose corner C and their different reasoning behind it.

Yeah, that way you don't also have a stampede of all the

kids just running to one corner.

Yes, also that.

What's great about these games is that they don't feel

like work to students. The movement makes the learning more

engaging and memorable.

And they are perfect for those times when energy is low,

you know, like after lunch or toward the end of the day.

Instead of fighting the wiggles, you are channeling them into

learning.

Our fifth and final strategy is probably the

simplest. Use intentional brain breaks.

Brain breaks are short movement activities, usually one

to three minutes, that give students a chance to move,

stretch and reset their focus. In my class, we needed these

after any focused work, probably longer than about 20 minutes.

Yep. And the key to making these brain breaks

intentional is that, instead of waiting until the kids are

climbing the walls, you plan for these brain breaks at natural

transition points in your day.

Maybe that's between subjects, or after a time of

focused work, or, you know, when you notice engagement starting

to dip a little bit. This way you are being proactive instead

of reactive.

And as you know, there are tons of brain break ideas

out there. You could do stretches or a quick game of

simon says or follow along with a go noodle video.

And we actually have our own set of printable brain

breaks if you want something that doesn't require technology,

which sometimes can be a real hassle if you're in a tight

bind. Our brain breaks are Print and Go cards with three

different types of activity styles to match whatever your

class needs in the moment.

Yep, we've got recharge activities for when kids need to

get the wiggles out, refocus activities that help students

calm down and prepare to concentrate again, and refresh

activities that engage their minds in fun ways. You can find

the brain breaks in our shop, and we'll put a link to them in

the show notes.

What I love about brain breaks is that they actually

save you time in the long run. Yes, you know, you're spending a

minute on movement, but you're gaining several minutes of

improved focus afterward.

It's like paying interest on an investment. That one

minute brings returns in the form of better behavior and more

efficient learning, and it prevents that cycle where kids

get wiggly, behavior deteriorates, you have to stop

and redirect, and suddenly you've lost five minutes anyway.

It is definitely better to give them one minute of

structured movement than to lose five minutes on the chaos. When

I was a brand new baby teacher, I was really reluctant to waste

time on something that felt as frivolous as movement.

Oh, me too. I just thought movement was something

extra, something I could only do if we had time. But now I can

see that it's an essential part of effective teaching.

Movement isn't a distraction from learning. It's

a catalyst for learning. When we work with children's natural

need for movement instead of against it, everyone wins.

Okay, so let's quickly recap our strategies for adding

movement to your lessons. First, act it out. Let students

physically become the learning. Second, stand if statements. Get

kids up and down while checking understanding. Third, learning

stations or rotations. Change where students do their work.

Fourth, academic movement games. Turn review into an active game.

And finally, fifth, intentional brain breaks. Plan short

movement activities between learning segments.

And remember, you don't have to implement all of these

at once. Please don't feel like that. Even adding one movement

strategy to your day can make a big difference for your wiggly

little learners.

We'd love to hear which of these strategies you try in

your classroom. Come join the conversation in our teacher

approved Facebook group.

Now let's talk about this week's teacher approved tip. Each week,

we leave you with a small actionable tip that you can

apply in your classroom today. This week's teacher approved tip

is manage those pre lunch wiggles. Tell us about this one,

Heidi.

Well we all know that right before lunch can be one of

the wiggliest times of the day. Kids are hungry. They've been

working hard all morning, and their focus is waning.

Oh, yes, I used to dread that 15 minutes right before

lunch, because it was like herding cats no matter what.

So instead of fighting those wiggles, one thing you can

try is a standing station for the last 10 minutes or so before

lunch. Designate a few areas in your room where students can

stand to complete their work.

Okay, I love that idea. What does a standing station

look like?

Well, it's really just anywhere kids can stand. It

might be a counter or a shelf at standing height, or really even

just a clipboard that they can use while standing at the wall.

And then when you notice the wiggles are starting to ramp up

before lunch, offer the option to move to a standing station to

finish their work.

Oh, this is brilliant, because it gives kids the

movement they need without disrupting the flow of your

lesson. And for some kids, standing actually helps them

focus better than sitting.

Oh, exactly. And the beauty is that you don't need

anything special or any extra planning. It's just offering an

alternative workspace, assuming that you give them the

consequence that if they can't handle making that choice,

you'll have to choose where they stand or have to go back to

their desks.

Oh, for sure. This is an option that you would want to

introduce with some expectations and practicing how they should

behave there and letting them know what the consequences are

if they don't follow those expectations. Or this could tune

into a nightmare.

Yeah, being clear about expectations is going to make or

break this. Be clear that standing work is still work

time. It's not a social break or a time to wander around the room

and try out all of the different spots.

Yeah. And you probably want to start small with this

idea, with maybe just three to four standing spots at first,

and then you could use a rotation system if lots of kids

want to try it. And then if you find that it's popular and it's

helping your students, and you've established good

expectations for it, it could become a more regular option in

your classroom. But for sure, some kids are probably never

going to want to stand there, and some will probably want to

stand there a lot, because it helps them focus better. It just

depends on the kids.

And really this is such a simple adjustment, but it can

make a big difference in managing that challenging time

before lunch.

To wrap up the show, we are sharing what we're giving extra

credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra credit?

I'm giving extra credit to the TV show The Pit on Max.

When this first came out, I didn't pay any attention to it

because I don't generally watch hospital things. I mean, okay, I

was very into Grey's Anatomy in the original, in the original

first few seasons, when it was so good. And I did watch the

original seasons of ER as well, which also had Noah Wiley in it,

who is in The Pit, yes. But somebody was raving enough about

it that I'm like, I'll just give it a try. And guys, it is so

good. It is set in this Pittsburgh ER, and each episode

is one hour of one day, so the whole season is just like one

shift on one day. And it is so well done. Now, I will say,

because it's on max instead of like on NBC, there is a lot more

gore. So just being prepared for that. I am a pro from my years

of watching Grey's Anatomy, of just knowing when to look away.

When the squishy sounds start, you need to mute the

squishy sounds.

So I do tend to watch this when I'm doing something

else that I can just look away when I don't want to watch

what's going on, but like the stories and the format is so

interesting in the way that these stories build from episode

to episode. Since it's all in the same day, you're seeing

patients over several hours, and I have just found it to be super

captivating. I've totally binged it. There's like, one more

episode coming out this week, and then I'm gonna be sad, but

there is already a season two confirmed. So if you start this,

you can know it's not gonna disappear. You can, it's worth

committing to.

That's good. There's nothing worse than getting

attached to a show only to have it cut and axed from your life.

I know. So if you watch this, let me know what you

think. Not you, Heidi. I mean you too, if you want to. Not

that I don't want your opinion, but I know you won't watch it.

Maybe somebody you will. But if somebody else watches it, come

and talk to me about it. What are you giving extra credit to,

Heidi?

Well, how's this for a segue? I'm giving extra credit

to magnesium threonate because it did, it has saved my life. So

like back in the fall, my doctor suggested I switch to that

rather than whatever I was taking via citrate, whatever

form of magnesium I was taking, because threonate crosses the

blood brain barrier. That's a thing, right?

So smart. You're so smart.

I could work on that show, that medical show.

You totally could.

And so I switched over, and I thought, like, I mean,

yeah, I guess it seems fine. I'm not really noticing any, like, I

didn't get any superpowers. I'm sure it's great, but it is a

little bit expensive. I mean, it's not crazy, it's, you know,

30 bucks for a month. It's not crazy, but when you can get

magnesium, a lot cheaper, it just seemed like some place I

could save money. So early in March, sorry, this is turning

into a story. Early in March, I just went back to the other

magnesium I was using, and then I didn't notice that my restless

legs started to ramp up. And then suddenly I was like up for

hours and hours every night, and I couldn't figure out what's

going on until I remember that I had just switched over the

magnesium. So I'm saying all that to say, if you also deal

with restless legs, trying out magnesium threonate could be a

game changer, because once I got back on that, it took a couple

nights, but I have not had this problem since.

Well, now you've done a perfect case study of one. This

works great for restless legs. So if that applies to you out

there, you should try it too.

And if you have been there, you know how desperate

you are to try anything. I've tried it all because it's the

worst feeling to just like be laying there and having your

legs go on an adventure without you. You just want to sleep.

And I've been taking this. I don't have restless

legs, but I have been taking this, and I feel like I've been

sleeping better too. But I don't have a perfect example like

yours. It's one of those like, Well, I think I'll just keep

taking it, because I think it's doing something. I guess if I

wanted a case study of one for me, I could stop taking it, but

I don't want to do that.

Because I didn't even think it was doing anything,

because it took so, you know, it took a while, a couple weeks,

probably, to kick in. And so I didn't make the connection. I

just was like, Well, yeah, that problem suddenly fixed. I don't

know what I did, but yay me. I learned. I love that stuff. Now

I've got bottles and bottles of it in my bathroom cabinets.

We will link to it in the show notes.

That is it for today's episode. Remember adding

movement to your lessons doesn't have to be complicated. Try one

of our five strategies and see how your students respond.

And don't forget our teacher approved tip for

managing those pre lunch wiggles with standing stations.

Sometimes the simplest solutions make the biggest difference.

Thanks for listening to the Teacher Approved podcast. If

you found this helpful, please share it with a teacher friend

who might need these ideas too.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I'm Heidi.

And I'm Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow

or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an

episode.

You can connect with us and other teachers in the

Teacher Approved Facebook group. We'll see you here next week.

Bye, for now.

Bye.