How will you keep the young people in your classroom warm?
As we all face a winter of continued restrictions to avoid the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers are increasingly being advised to keep windows and doors open. A recent article in the TES discussed layering-up clothing for teachers to keep warm; but have you considered how to help keep the young people in your classroom warm too?
Maybe it is time to adopt an active classroom policy and keep those young people moving and warm through fun, simple warm up activities, during the day.
Active Devon are promoting the Active Schools Framework and believe that whole school change is needed to encourage greater physical activity in our young people. By establishing good habits when they are young; they will adopt them and keep more active for life.
When pupils sit still for too long, their core muscles become less and less active and their posture gets worse. Poor posture leads to slower, less tidy handwriting and poorer attention. To re-activate the core muscles, try some of these Winter Olympic events from your chairs. If your setting isn’t yet on board with the Active Schools Framework, why don’t you try these simple games in the meantime and see how many of those frowns you can turn upside down into smiles!
CLASSROOM WINTER OLYMPICS
• Downhill slalom: Pupils should sit up straight on their chairs and follow you (or a Youtube video clip such as this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F23sHW3zlRk ), leaning left and right through the slalom course. Beginners can keep hands on the chair and feet on the floor, intermediates can lift their hands up and advanced can lift hands and feet in the air.
• Ski Jump: Lean forward in your chair with feet off the ground to simulate the approach, then lift your bottom off of the chair using your arms to simulate the flight. You can copy a clip like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=undVQi_AgnE or have a class competition to see who can hold themselves up the longest.
• Bobsleigh: Stand behind your chair and run on the spot, using a video like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnJArS1QDkk for timing. When the driver jumps in their sled, sit down in your chair. Lean left when the driver steers left, lean right to go right. Lean forward to go faster and lean back at the end to slow down. This can be done at the pupils’ desks, or, for a competition, lined up in teams of four. The best synchronised team wins.
