BEREA — “Are you ready to exercise your brains?”
That is how physical education teacher Kathy Todd started a first-grade class Friday in the Action-Based Learning Lab at Shannon Johnson Elementary.
The students responded with an enthusiastic chorus of “Yes,” and then took their places at one of seven stations in what is a very non-traditional physical education classroom.
At one station, the students walked on the rails of a ladder that lay on the floor. As they passed each ladder rung, they read the world placed on the floor between rungs.
As they looped back to restart the path along the ladder, the students stepped on numbered, collapsible hemispheres, whispering the numbers as they stepped.
At another station, they walked along a Figure 8 as they read words from a small flip chart.
Then they traced geometric shapes on the wall, reciting the shapes’ names, followed by walking around the outlines of other patterns on the floor.
At one station, the students sat still, rolling a softball back and forth along a straight line. They kept their heads still, but followed the ball with their eyes.
“In addition to developing hand-eye coordination, this exercise simulates the motion of students eyes as they read,” Todd said.
“Keep your eyes on the ball,” Todd told a student as she walked by.
In the room’s center, students bounced up and down as they rode large inflated balls within a giant square.
Action-Based Learning is a trademarked program developed by education researcher Jean Blaydes of Texas.
As the program keeps children physically active, its prepares the brain for input, Todd said.
As the children crawl, roll, spin, walk, jump, juggle and bounce through the stations, they develop balance, coordination, spatial awareness, directionality and visual literacy, she said.
In addition to physical activity, the challenge and feedback the students encounter in Action-Based Learning stimulate optimal brain function, according to Blaydes’ research.
Spatial awareness and motor skill practice lay the framework for reading, she states on her Web site. In addition to developing focus, the exercises have been shown to bring a lethargic or hyperactive child back into balance.
Todd said she had been aware of Blaydes’ research for years, having heard her lecture at professional conferences.
After Todd and members of the district’s Coordinated School Health Committee, including Superintendent Tommy Floyd, attended an Indianapolis presentation by Blaydes this past fall, two pilot programs were authorized.
Action-Based Learning will be introduced in a pilot program at the new Caudill Middle School this fall.
The district has applied for a grant to fund Action-Based Learning, as well as fitness labs, in all of its schools, Todd said.
“These programs, along with enhanced nutritional and health education, are part of our district’s coordinated school health initiative,” she said.
The Madison County Health Department, Pattie A. Clay Regional Medical Center and St. Joseph Hospital-Berea have representatives on the Coordinated School Health Committee and have been supportive of the grant application and all of the district’s health and physical education efforts, Todd said.
“Not only are we helping to improve the health of our students, I believe the Madison County School District is poised to be a model for student health and physical education in Kentucky,” she said.
Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 624-6622.
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Anna Julian, a first-grader at Shannon Johnson Elementary, crawls through one of seven stations Friday in the school’s new Action-Based Learning Lab.
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