‘Movement paths’ give kids outlet for activity

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Local News

February 26, 2019 - 10:20 AM

What 5-year-old doesn’t have energy to burn?

On Monday, McKinley Elementary principal Angie Linn briefed USD 257 board members on a “movement paths” project adopted by the school. The endeavor involves placing a series of semi-permanent vinyl stickers on the school’s hallway floors  — one sticker depicting a lily pad, another a log or an arrow; some marked with letters, others with numbers — and then encouraging the students, when they encounter these constellations of stickies in the course of their school day, to skip or walk or hopscotch atop the strategically arrayed pattern, obeying the stickers’ subtle prompts (e.g. if the arrow points north, face north; if you come to a water hazard, bound over it). There are three pathways now. More are planned for the future.

“It really helps them to stay calm, focused, and regulated,” said Linn. Plus, it’s a great way to evaluate their gross motor skills, which — among this very youngest group of school-age children — are as wide-ranging as their academic talents. 

“I like it,” continued Linn. “It’s not distracting. The kids are quiet. And it’s fun to look out of the office and see a child walking out of the library with their folder and their book; they’re just walking and then all of a sudden they hit that path” — leap, leap, turnaround, hopscotch, touch your toes, jump up, turnaround, big leap, little leap — “and then as soon as they’re off the path, they immediately start walking back to class.”

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