[aparna ravipati]

greeting students at the door,Reminders and cues are helpful ways to encourage students to follow instructions . acknowledging the positive behavior & giving a small prizes,Active supervise& make some rules .

[Nahomi]

We have a song where we call each child’s name and have them jump, turn around, touch the ground, and sit down. We also do “yoga” and stretches when we don’t get to go outdoors.

[Rachel]

sin fun songs that include every child and gives them all a chance to do a dance move or sing out-loud, always make sure to have close relationships with all children to make them feel comfortable enough to want to do fun activities with the whole class.

[Andraya]

ways to create a fun, appropriate and physically active classroom are to have jobs/activities in which they have to get multiple pieces in multiple trips. so say they are doing a job that has several pieces, instead of them trying to carry everything at once and risking the chance of it all falling teaching them to take multiple trips to get all their supplies. another option is to have daily active stretching or exercises together to help get the body moving and clear the mind and lift the energy the class can do this all together when gathered at circle or in between transitions. Another option is to incorporate dance parties where the kids get to move and have fun.

[Bonnie Claire]

There are children’s songs that involve jumping and when we used to do it when I was little, a lot of the kids are very much involved with the dancing and got a lot of laughter from it. In the mornings, have time to play some relaxing music and show them easy and developmentally appropriate stretching exercises.

[jess]

We have certain songs where each kid will be included this song whether their name song or each kid reacts with their name or just class songs with dance moves they know musical chairs.

[miranda]

Do games based on nursery rhymes. or other musical leanings.

[Diamon]

Make it enjoyable to come to class by singing songs, dancing, having game days, and letting students pick what to do for the day.

[Kristin]

After building trust with the child, I think it is important to not only have developmentally appropriate toys but activities and a wide array of things to do throughout the day. Spending time outside, singing songs, dancing, reading, coloring, and painting are all ways to create a developmentally fun and active classroom.

[Maria]

We have certain songs, we turn them on and the children move to the music. There are verbs in the song, for example: jump, stomp and the children are happy to perform these movements

[El Sollman]

My tips are to do group activities daily and to have games set up for them ready to go that they already know how to play.

[Lauren]

I turn on a cleaning song for kids so they know when I tell them “ok, it’s time to clean up our toys so we can have lunch.” I turn on the cleaning song and then I ask if they can help me and we will lay out bins and throw the toys into their bins. Children love when you turn it into a game. And they love games. I turn on dance freeze to get them to move around and it includes dancing, twirling, skipping, jumping and more. We also do yoga poses when the weather isn’t good to get them up and moving.

• This reply was modified 6 months ago by  Lauren.

[Personal]

We have a few physical activities that we do inside to keep the kids moving like: yoga, dancing, Simon says doing all kind of physical movements, the floor is lava.

[Jamie]

Any activity is great, but the best ones are the ones that the teacher does right alongside the children.

[Haley]

Some ways to create a more fun, active classroom can be creating activities that allow children to move their bodies. We have cards at our school that have different positions like, standing on one foot, hopping in place, etc. and these can be great when we see that the children want to move their bodies and are getting restless.

[Hadiya Al-Shishani]

I think dancing is a fun yet simple way to provide children with daily exercise. Make up movements to songs they love and find ways to incorporate those dances every day. ‘Call and response’ games are very engaging too. For example, the teacher can make up movements (jumping, touching your toes, stretching, etc.) and have the class mimic them! Or go around a circle and have the kids choose a movement and then their classmates mimic them. Group activities in general will likely provide the best results!
Getting the children to help with cleaning up toys is also providing opportunities for movement.

[Jailee]

One way is through the use of songs that can create a quick, indoor physical activity that does not involve running around the classroom, such as “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” The use of assign jobs throughout the classroom at the end of the day could also give children a physical activity that also contributes to the care of their environment.