Brain Breaks to Help Children Learn at Home

Coach Calhoun is a bit of a celebrity among students of Mississippi. Teachers all over the state of Mississippi and across the country are using Move to Learn videos to help their students excel in academics by incorporating short “fitness breaks” into their routine. Parents at home might find these resources equally helpful! If your 2-nd-grader suddenly becomes easily distracted or lethargic, it’s time to hit “pause,” put the books away and take a brain break with Coach Calhoun! These videos are available online and are free to use.

About Move to Learn

Move To Learn videos offer a fun and easy way to get the classroom back on task. Studies show that just five minutes of physical activity nearly doubles student engagement. The simple choreography helps students shake out nervous energy with minimal classroom disruption. Make Move To Learn part of your classroom routine or just pull up a video when you notice your students losing focus.

Better grades. Better health. Studies have shown that physical activity increases children’s ability to learn, and as fitness improves, test scores improve. That’s why Move to Learn incorporates movement in the classroom through short exercise videos and healthy lesson plans.

The Move to Learn campaign is based on two Mississippi academic studies that show a correlation between increased fitness and improved test scores, as well as fewer absences and fewer disciplinary incidents at school.  The two studies, ‘Fitness Among Mississippi Students’, and ‘Increasing Fitness to Improve Academic Performance’, also showed this correlation applies across all socioeconomic and demographic categories.  These findings suggest that a good investment in the future of public education may be through an investment of student fitness.

Move to Learn is a free, easy to use tool for educators to incorporate movement and fitness into the school day.  The Move to Learn website offers short exercise videos for grades K-6 and healthy lesson plans to help teachers create positive learning environments and promote effective classroom management. The website also includes examples of schools that are already using physical activity to improve academic performance.