Physical activity is a great way to break up the day and help students move their bodies! There are many benefits of movement and classroom movement can help lighten the mood with all the rigorous academic demands on a daily basis for young learners. Structuring your day to allow bursts of movement will definitely add some positivity to your day! Check out these 25 ideas for movement for your elementary students!
1. Movement Hide and Seek Digital Game
This game is fun and allows plenty of movement! Find the number around the room like playing hide and seek. The twist is that students will find numbers and do the movement associated with them. It is in digital format and can be customized to your liking.
Learn more: Rhody Girl Resources
2. Fast Find Scavenger Hunt
Hide clues around the room and let students find them to practice skills. You could do this with first sounds, letter names, and sounds or other literacy or math skills. These could be tailored to use with other content areas as well, like science or social studies.
Learn more: Rhody Girl Resources
3. Move and Spell Sight Word Game
This is a great academic movement activity that will help little ones learn their sight words. This activity allows children to practice their sight words while moving their bodies. Little ones love to move, so this one is a double winner!
Learn more: Rhody Girl Resources
4. Hopscotch
Movement ideas while playing hopscotch can have a great variety. You can practice number or letter identification or even sight word recognition. The impact of movement while learning is a fantastic combination.
Learn more: Care.com
5. Activity Cube
This activity cube allows for some creativity. This could be fun for transition times or if a brain break is needed in the classroom. You could use this for indoor recess or add it to your morning motion movement time.
Learn more: Little Family Fun
6. Move Your Body Cards
Adding movement integration into any learning time is a great way to improve engagement with students. This movement card game is a fun way to allow choice of movements. You could also pick a movement leader to do the movement and everyone mimics the leader.
Learn more: Amazon
7. Ball and Bean Bag Toss
Fun games like this ball and bean bag toss are a great way to break up the day. Perfect for indoor recess game ideas, this toss is a hit with students! It is a fun exercise but it is also great practice for motor skills. Super easy to make and store, this one requires most items you already have at home or in your classroom.
Learn more: Frogs Snails and Puppy Dog Tails
8. Charades
Charades is a movement game that requires intellectual skills as well. Students will have to think through how to convey meaning without speaking. This is fun for the entire class to play along or separate students into teams and let them play against each other.
Learn more: Atlas Mission
9. Obstacle Courses
Obstacle courses can be fun for the teacher and the students. Add fun and challenging obstacle courses to your school day and enjoy watching students try to figure out how to get through correctly. Students could also take turns designing obstacle courses.
Learn more: What Moms Love
10. Gross Motor Tape Games
Ideas for movement can be simple! Put tape on the floor to show shapes or letters and allow students the option to creatively move to the object. This builds in movement with shape and letter or number recognition. Let children channel their innermost animals and their movements.
Learn more: What Moms Love
11. Heart Race
Similar to an egg and spoon relay, this game is another good option for motor skills. Students can scoop foam hearts into a spoon and go to another area to dump them out. Make this a race to see who can get there first!
Learn more: Little Family Fun
12. Penguin Waddle
Balloon games, like this penguin waddle, are a great way to build movement into play or learning. Include this fun little activity to see who can waddle their way to the finish line first!
Learn more: What Moms Love
13. Hula Hoop Contest
A good, old-fashioned hula hoop contest is another good way to get bodies moving! Switch it up and have them use their arms or necks to up the challenge a bit more!
Learn more: Empowered Parents
14. Follow Me
Similar to the game Simon Says, this movement activity allows for one leader to pick and do the movement. The rest of the class will follow along, copying the movements of the leader.
Learn more: Mrs. Miracle's Music Room
15. I Am Walking
Elementary music lessons like this one can also be used for movement activities inside the classroom. Spend a little time in your school day singing and dancing or following the movement prompts, like stomping!
Learn more: Mrs. Miracle's Music Room
16. Syllable Clap and Stomp
Another music and movement activity, this one allows for clapping and stomping as well. Clapping out syllables or stomping syllables or patterns is a great way to practice pre-literacy skills!
Learn more: Proud to be Primary
17. Roll the Dice Movement Activity
Roll the dice to see what movement activity you get! You can design it however you would like and include whichever movement activities you want to include. You could even let students vote on the movements to include.
Learn more: Teaching Littles
18. Play 4 Corners
This game works with almost any content area. Ask a question and watch students scurry to the nearest corner as they express opinions or choose answers. You can let students even choose the questions or statements to include.
Learn more: Ciera Harris Teaching
19. Graffiti Wall
Graffiti walls are great ways to boost engagement and add movement to learning. Students can add their thoughts and opinions to the graffiti walls. Other students can respond to what their peers offer as well.
Learn more: Ciera Harris Teaching
20. Pass the Plate Rhythm Game
This game can be fun for older or younger elementary students. Tap out the rhythm and pass the plate, letting the next person add to the previous rhythm. Each student can put their own spin and add their own movement and beat to the chain!
Learn more: Yellow Brick Roaf
21. Color Run Donut Game
Singing this cute little song is a great way to practice colors. You can add in the movements and let students take turns running "home" when their color is called. You can also practice color names on the doughnuts as well.
Learn more: Pinterest
22. Shape Dance Song
This shape game is a great song and dance activity that is fun for getting students up and moving and helping them learn their shapes! This is a great chant to use to help them remember the shapes and their attributes.
Learn more: Miss Kindergarten
23. Animal Walks
Pair a cute book, like the bear hunt book or another animal book, with this animal walk activity. Let students practice walking like these animals and pretending to be them. They could add in their own sound effects as well!
Learn more: Lemon Lime Adventures
24. LEGO Block Spoon Race
This block spoon race is fun and can become competitive and challenging. Students can race back and forth while maintaining balance to see who can move the blocks from one place to another the fastest. This is a great brain break or indoor recess time activity.
Learn more: Little Family Fun
25. Movement BINGO
Indoor recess time will be a hit with movement BINGO. Students can play a movement version of BINGO and you can design it with whatever movements you want to include. This game is fun to include in your school day or play for fun in your free time.
Learn more: Kami App
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