Learning Through Movement In After School Classes

Our lifestyle has become more and more sedentary. Pupils are becoming less physically mobile because at home not enough attention is given to healthy lifestyle. The educational system is designed so that the pupils spend most of the morning sitting behind a desk at school and in the afternoon, they again sit behind a desk to do homework or even more worrying to use the computer or watch TV. Being active affects the development of speech, attention, social skills, motivation, learning and the emotional development of a pupil. Because of all these reasons, it is important to develop and encourage learning through movement and movement through games especially in the first years of schooling. We offer the pupils an environmental stimuli and encouragement to seek their own ways to conquer physical and thinking processes. The school hall can become a movement playground with different floor games. Self-learning is made more interesting by moving and pupils learn while rolling, jumping and crawling. When we activate our body, we also activate our brain. Through movement pupils learn how to deal with problems, how to think and how to acquire knowledge in other areas (mathematics, language, art, society and nature). Directed and undirected free time in after school classes is an excellent opportunity to encourage pupils and to offer them creative forms of learning through movement.