Fall is my favorite time of year - the weather starts to cool off, the leaves begin to change colors, and October is National Physical Therapy Month! So for this month’s activities for the classroom, we are going to talk about simple motor activities to help students and teachers take a moving break!
One of my favorites and classics for incorporating movement in the classroom is to imitate an animal/action- walk like a duck, fly like a bird, hop like a bunny, waddle like a penguin, pretend to be falling like a leaf, roll like a pumpkin. Not only is it fun and creative, but it can be done with the student standing at his/her own desks without much room. Letting the student choose an animal is fun too!
Another fun activity that doesn’t require a lot of space is 4 corners. Label each corner in the classroom, then choose a student to be ‘It”. That student closes his/her eyes while the other students stand in one of the corners. With eyes still closed, ‘It’ chooses a corner and all of the students in that corner have to have a seat. The game continues until there are 4 students left. With 4 students left they all must choose a different corner until only one student is left and that student becomes ’It’. To incorporate the fall theme try picking 4 different types of candy or fall colors to label the corners.
The last motor activity suggestion for this month is to make a deck of alphabet action cards. Each letter of the alphabet has an action- for example- C is for Curl up, F- is fall like a leaf, M is for March, R is for Reach like picking apples, W is for walk like a mummy. This is another game to be super creative but is a little more time consuming to come up with a motor activity for each letter of the alphabet.
So go enjoy the cooler weather this fall and keep moving in the classroom!
Happy National Physical Therapy Month!
Author: Beth Niesman, PT, DPT
