Dear Parents,

One of the school improvement initiatives here at Discovery is Movement Based Learning.  Our initiative is based on the research of John Raty from Harvard.  His findings indicate that exercise optimizes learning.  We’ve known for a long time that exercise helps with our mood and is part of a healthy life style.  What we didn’t know is that even small amounts of movement can increase attention and motivation, even memory.  For the last two years, we’ve had a movement room filled with exercise equipment, where students can exercise during the course of the day.  Teachers are able to take classrooms to the room for movement breaks.  This year we added a Running Club before school as a great way to start the day. 

Second semester, we are adding what is called an “Action Based Learning Lab” in our lower elementary.  With the help of national trainer Jean Blaydes, the room was designed based on the premise that movement lays the foundation for learning.  The brain and body work together to process movement sequences and patterns such as rolling, crawling, walking, and jumping.  The brain relies on these basic movement patterns and sequences to learn the alphabet and number system.  Did you know that skipping in four and five year olds is a predictor of reading readiness?    The room, therefore, is purposely set up with balancing, rolling, and crawling activities that will involve small groups and whole classrooms of kindergarten through second grade students working with Mrs. Murphy.   Mrs. Murphy is a certified interventionist with a degree in physical education.  She was trained by Jean Blaydes in setting up the room.

Please join us for a tour of this latest addition to our movement initiative during the PTC meeting tonight, Tuesday, January 10^th at 7:00.  We will show you the activities and answer any questions.   Dr. Raty says “What makes us move is also what makes us think”.  We are this putting research into action here at Discovery to increase student learning.