MOVING WITH MATH AND LITERATURE

Counting and number recognition while jumping!? Reciting the alphabet and phonetically sounding out the letters while dancing!? Why not! Young children have a need to move. It can be difficult for a young child to complete tasks that involve being stationary for a long period of time. This need to move is typical of gross motor exploration in young children. In fact, Howard Gardner, author of Frames of Mind, proposes that Bodily-Kinesthetic is one of the important approaches to learning, or “intelligences”, in his overall theory of “multiple intelligences.”

Gardner suggests that Bodily-Kinesthetic learners learn best by incorporating movement into their learning -- even about subjects like math or literacy. A Bodily-Kinesthetic approach can be fun and useful when introducing these subjects. For example, children can practice the literacy skill of recollection by physically acting out a story that was read to them. They can learn patterns or rhyming words by alternating hand the movements of snapping and clapping.

The Museum offers many Bodily-Kinesthetic learning opportunities. Visit the Creativity Connections Neighborhood where your child can jump and count while watching his shadow; tell a story while tapping out a beat on the wrenches in the Room for Rhythm; or why not hop over to the Museum for a class in our Hop ‘n’ Bop© series? You can sway, dance and play to the Hop ‘n’ Bop© theme, then take the activity home and build on the early math and literacy concepts. Move into the fun!

Mollie HM Willis, MS Curriculum & Instruction, guest blogger