Energizers
Energizers are short ‘movement breaks’ of around 10 to 30 minutes. You can use them at your school as a warm-up or interruption to learning. When pupils do something active for a short while, they gain new energy and regain their attention.
Read the research into the effects of energizers in primary schools here:
- When you use energizers, pupils move more during the day. Depending on the duration and intensity, this can help children meet the physical activity guidelines.
- Energizers lead to greater attention, concentration and motivation among pupils during lessons.
- Pupils enjoy the breaks and feel fitter. Teachers also enjoy leading energizers once they have gained some experience.
There are many different types of energizers for primary schools. For indoors and outdoors, via interactive whiteboards and YouTube. Here are a few good examples that you can use at your school:
- Smartbreaks are smart activity breaks that allow pupils to let off steam and recharge completely in 5 minutes. Smartbreaks provide variety, fun and movement, so that children can continue with the next lesson feeling fresh and focused.
- During the coronavirus pandemic, Riskcare developed the Home physical education series. Here you will find 42 videos for your primary school pupils, featuring a wide variety of physical exercises.
- The Daily Mile is an intensive form of energizer. The whole class goes outside and walks, jogs or runs for 15 minutes a day. Each pupil does so at their own level. You do this on at least three school days per week.
Active learning
With active learning, pupils are physically active during the lesson. A well-known example is practising multiplication tables by jumping. Active learning has the same benefits as energizers. One question remains open: do you also learn better while moving? Do your results improve?
More and more specific research is being conducted into the effect of physical activity on performance. The results point in the right direction for a number of effects. For example, this article states that five out of six studies found positive effects of physical activity on arithmetic. But the size of that effect is still being investigated. Researchers are also still examining which form of movement works best: moderately intensive movement, such as jumping? Or complex movement, such as a difficult gymnastics exercise, or dribbling a ball?
A number of good examples of active learning:
- Here you will find five games combining movement and language, including ‘the number plate game’ and ‘reading and movement bingo’.
- Here you will find five games combining movement and arithmetic, including ‘the number line’ and ‘the tree trunk and the table’.
- You can find good creative examples in the videos by Meester Niels Beweegt, one of the initiators of the Active Learning method from Nijmegen.
This is a summary. Read the full article on the Alles over Sport website.