At Northfield Elementary, educators encourage students to wiggle

At Northfield Elementary School in Ellicott City, physical activity is no longer reserved for recess or gym class. Kids are encouraged to move around during instructional time, too.&quot;We don't really sit longer than 15 minutes at a time, because the students start to get antsy and they need to keep moving,&quot; said kindergarten teacher Julia Allan.The school was recently honored with a 2016 Let's Move! Active Schools National Award from Michelle Obama's anti-childhood obesity initiative for its efforts to create an active school environment. Around the country, 544 schools received recognition.Educators at Northfield have embraced movement as a tool for keeping students engaged in learning.When Allan's students need a brain or movement break, terms used frequently at Northfield, she leads her students in galloping, bunny-hopping and tip-toeing around the classroom, or turns to GoNoodle, an online library of kid-friendly physical activity videos.One afternoon she chooses a video of a mustached man leading the smiling 4- and 5-year-olds in a countdown from 100, coordinated with alternating arm reaches, jumps and torso twists.&quot;It's another part of your muscle memory that kind of locks it in,&quot; Allan said. &quot;It gives you a motion or a movement to try and remember what you learn.&quot;Kindergartner Aden Oxenreider said that the brain breaks, which all of the kindergarten teachers at Northfield Elementary use, allow him to get his &quot;movements out.&quot;&quot;And I can do the 'extercising,'&quot; he said. &quot;Then I'm all fresh to go and do more work.&quot;Principal Tiffany Tresler said that efforts at Northfield Elementary to promote physical activity ramped up over the past couple of years since the county school system implemented a healthy lifestyle initiative. The Ellicott City school now does everything from hosting community fitness events and purchasing equipment that keeps kids active during indoor recess, to incorporating movement and movement breaks into classroom learning.The latter caught on in the 2015-2016 school year, Tresler said.&quot;Last year was our tipping point where, where you had a couple of staff members doing it, then a couple more, then a couple more,&quot; she said. &quot;And then last year things just got to the point where everyone got on board.&quot;People have to see that it works,&quot; she said.According to the National Center for Chronic Disease and Health Promotion, brief classroom physical activity breaks are associated with improved attention, classroom behavior and academic achievement among students.&quot;At first you're like, that's instructional time,&quot; said Northfield Elementary's third-grade team leader, Treva Hilliard. &quot;But then you realize that when they get up and move, it actually gives you time back.&quot;Hilliard, who has taught at Northfield for almost 20 years, said that she can sense when her students are starting to get fidgety, and will take a break to play a hand motion game or GoNoodle video.&quot;You know when a kid is starting to kind of tune out or fade out, and as soon as you get some kind of movement break in there, it immediately ... retriggers their brain to get moving and get back into gear,&quot; she said.The veteran teacher often plays a game in her class called &quot;mingle, mingle, clump,&quot; in which her students move around the desks in their classroom until Hilliard tells them to clump. She then gives the small groups that the students have formed a question to answer based on what they've been learning in a certain content area.&quot;It's a way to reinforce concepts that have been taught, and they also get some movement, so it keeps them engaged,&quot; she said.Down the hall, fifth-grade teacher Ed White has taken a different approach to incorporating movement into his classroom.&quot;I was a student that couldn't sit still, and I always knew that if I was moving a little bit, I could pay attention,&quot; he said. &quot;So when I became a teacher, I didn't want to be that teacher that said, 'Stay in your seat!' I'd always tell my kids, 'If you're tired and you need to stand up, stand up. You can walk around the room, as long as you're paying attention.&quot;Then White read an article about workers who sit on yoga balls, which according to the article, help with both posture and focus.&quot;And I thought to myself, could I fit 25 yoga balls in here?&quot; White said.His classroom is not big enough, he determined, but a member of the school's PTA who works in physical therapy recommended inflatable discs as a substitute that the students could place on their chairs. The PTA purchased an entire set for White's class.&quot;I let the kids decide how much air or how little air they wanted in the discs, so the first two weeks of school, they're pumping it up and letting it out and pumping it up, until they get where they want to go, and then they sit on it,&quot; he said. &quot;Sometimes they put it against their backs, sometimes they put it on the floor and they put their feet on it. They bounce around, but it helps them focus.&quot;Fifth-grader Amanda Hill, who, like White as a student, cannot sit still for very long, said she no longer has to miss class to stretch her legs, because the discs allow her to move around in her seat.&quot;Because last year I always said I either had to go to the bathroom when I really didn't, or get a drink of water, but I was always missing important stuff,&quot; she said. &quot;Now I'm getting more stuff done. I learn more stuff.&quot;

At Northfield Elementary, educators encourage students to wiggle

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