MILLERSBURG – As teachers keep an eye on kids and how they learn, there’s a new method of education.
Get kids moving, get them active to help them learn.
It’s a program called “Minds in Motion.”
It puts kids’ bodies to work to help their brains develop.
Every day, some of the students at Millersburg Elementary School take part in the program. They go through a maze of different, simple exercises.
Each week, it changes, but the goal is the same – to stimulate parts of the brain in a fun way.
“(Students) don’t do a lot of exercise at home anymore,” said kindergarten teacher Jen Snider. “They are pretty still, and so, this is a way to get them moving and exercising, helping their balance, helping their hand-eye coordination with writing and reading, so it helps in the classroom.”
“It’s very exciting, because kids, it seems like we have taken away a lot of the fun of school because of the increase of standards, and this is a way for kids to learn and have fun, and the staff seems to enjoy it with the kids,” said Millersburg Principal Teresa Zook.
Activities with the maze vary.
“One of them is strong arm push,” said Snider. “They push against the wall. One thing is balance beam, and they walk across a balance beam, they have a balance board. One of them is eye-tracking, so it helps their eye movements and their reading as well.”
For the students involved in “Minds in Motion,” especially the younger ones, it’s part of the day they all look forward to, having fun in school and learning along the way.
“We just had Parents Day, and this one thing, they all wanted to show Parents – it was “Minds in Motion.”
“The kids are excited to have the opportunity to do it,” said Zook. “They do it on a daily basis.”
The “Minds in Motion” program is also used at New Paris and Benton Elementary Schools in the Fairfield School Corporation.
The cost of the program is covered through a series of grants.
