TEACHING EVERY STUDENT

INCORPORATING KINESTHETIC LEARNING ACTIVITIES

IN THE CLASSROOM

TRADITIONAL LEARNING STYLES

WHAT IS YOUR STYLE?

When you

Visual

Auditory

Kinesthetic

Spell

Do you sound out the Do you write the word

Do you try to see the
word or use a
down to find if it feels
word?
phonetic approach?
right?

Talk

Do you enjoy listening Do you gesture and use

Do you dislike
but are impatient to
expressive
listening for too long?
talk?
movements?

Do you become
distracted by
Concentrate
untidiness or
movement?
Do you forget names
Meet someone but remember faces
again
or remember where
you met?

Do you become
distracted by sounds
or noises?

Do you become
distracted by activity
around you?

Do you forget faces

but remember names Do you remember best
or remember what
what you did together?
you talked about?

CHARACTERISTICS OF VISUAL LEARNERS

Learn by reading or seeing pictures
Often close their eyes to visualize or remember something
Will find something to watch when they become bored
Attracted to color
Difficulty with spoken directions
Easily distracted by sounds

CHARACTERISTICS OF AUDITORY
LEARNERS
Learn by hearing and listening
Store information by the way it sounds
Understanding spoken instructions better than written
Learn by reading out loud
Hum or talk to themselves or others if they become bored
Look like they are not paying attention, even though they may
hear and understand everything being said

CHARACTERISTICS OF KINESTHETIC
LEARNERS
Learn by touching and doing
Need to be active and take frequent breaks
Speak with their hands and with gestures
Have difficulty sitting still and move around when they
become bored

Remember things that were done but have difficulty

remembering what they saw or heard

Appreciate physically expressed forms of encouragement

INCORPORATING KINESTHETIC
LEARNING ACTIVITIES IN THE
CLASSROOM
Most students learn using a variety of learning styles, even if
one is more dominant than the others.

Unfortunately, dominant kinesthetic learners often find it harder

to break out of their learning style and adapt to other styles.

Kinesthetic learning is also the learning mode that traditional

formal education uses the least.

The following ideas can help you incorporate fun kinesthetic

activities into your classroom.

STRETCHING LECTURE
If you have a lecture in which you do not expect your student to
take notes, or plan to have time that you need their undivided
attention, try creating a Stretching Lecture. Begin by asking the
students to execute a simple stretch. Each time you change
topics, ask the students to change their stretch. Keep track of the
stretches you ask the students to perform and what material you
covered during each stretch. Later, when you review, prompt the
students by reminding them how they were stretching as you
presented that particular material. It will be helpful to establish a
few rules at the beginning of class, such as no talking, no
laughing at yourself or others, and if you fall, get right back up.

FIND YOUR MATCH

Many teachers use worksheets to teach their students basic
grammar, vocabulary words, etc. Instead, turn your lesson into a
kinesthetic activity. After explaining the fundamental concepts,
give half the class a slip of paper with one part of the information
and the other half of the class the other (for example, give half
the class a paper with a noun and the other half a paper with a
verb). Ask the students to walk around the room and find a
classmate that completes their concept. This game can be used
with any subject. If you plan to reuse the activity in multiple
classes, you may want to laminate your slips of paper.

VOCABULARY CHARADES
Every subject has vocabulary associated with it that the
students must learn in order to succeed. Turn your
vocabulary lesson into a game of charades. Assign each
student a word on a slip of paper. One at a time, ask the
students come up to the front of the classroom and try to act
out that word as the other students guess. You can also
break the classroom into groups to play this game. If you
want to make the game competitive, you should set a time
limit and establish a point system before you begin.

BUILD MODELS
To help kinesthetic learners grasp information, build models
in class. Though sitting at their desks, models keep kids'
hands busy and moving. For example, in science lessons,
kids can build skeleton or DNA models. In any subject,
students can build 3-D maps, charts, or graphs representing
material from the lesson.

VOCABULARY DANCE
In foreign language classes, dance, physical education, health, and
some science courses, students must learn specific terms for the
parts of their bodies. Create an easy dance with simple repetitive
movement. For example, right foot forward and back, step
together, left foot forward and back, step together. Teach the
movements using only the language/terminology you are teaching.
Ask the students to say each body part, direction, location, etc. as
they perform the movement. Then, give the student practice time
in smaller groups before performing the dance to music. You can
build on this lesson by asking the students to create their own
movements (matched with foreign language/anatomically correct
vocabulary).

SIGN LANGUAGE MULTIPLE CHOICE

Teach the American Sign Language alphabet, or at least A-D,
and have the class use it when giving an oral review with
multiple choice. In science classes, you can also have the
students learn the letters to represent the basic elements. In
math classes, you can ask students to solve simple equations
and show the answer using their hand(s).

PICTIONARY
Get students up and moving by playing a game ofPictionary.
Students can draw a vocabulary word or phrase and ask the
group to guess the answer. In science or math, students
could give part of a formula, elements of a cell, etc. This
works well with the whole group or in small groups.

STUDENT SKITS
Many middle school and high school students love to be the center
of attention. Students can earn this attention in a positive way by
performing plays or skits they write themselves in front of the class
or a small group. The topic can be easily adapted to any lesson. In
English or foreign language classes, the written script they produce
may be more important than the actual performance. In other
classes, you may choose to give them a topic and let the skit be
more improvisational. In either situation, be sure you give clear
expectations of what material must be represented in the skit.

MAKE YOUR OWN BOARD GAME

Ask students to design a game board. The game can be
based on important facts of a certain subject, a story or topic
you have recently covered, or questions for an upcoming test.
Give the students plenty of time to brainstorm their ideas
and create their board(s). You will need to have basic
supplies, such as markers or crayons, paper, scissors, and
tape. After the students have created their game, have them
play it or demonstrate the rules to the class.