Stepping It Up With GoNoodle!

We have finished 10 full days of school! Or, in GoNoodle terms, we've gone through 1 1/2 Champs! Today I'm joining up with a bunch of other bloggers for a Back to School Blogger Blitz to share all the wonders of using GoNoodle in the classroom!

This year I'm in pre-k and I have 17 darlings who have tons of energy and very short attention spans. We can't sit still for more than 5 minutes at a time, so we need LOTS of brain breaks - most of which come from GoNoodle!

In the morning, before breakfast, we start off with Maximo - his easy yoga videos calm my kids and get them ready to head into the hallway! I can already see the difference in balance and concentration after just 10 days!

We also GoNoodle during calendar time! My calendar block is 20 minutes long, since we hit a LOT of math standards during it. Of course, 20 minutes is way too long for my kids to sit still at this point, so we do a lot of dancing - some of it is content - days of the week, months of the year, counting to 20 for example (videos from Youtube) - but interspersed into that 20 minutes is at least 2-3 Koo Koo Kangaroo songs! One of our faves is "I Get Loose"!

Since I'm teaching young kids, repetition is important! The first day, I only had a handful of kiddos dancing along when I played a video. The rest stared at our Smartboard screen in befuddlement. Day by day, as I repeat the same few videos, more and more kiddos are catching on and learning the moves. My extroverts are already adding in their own flare, while my shyer kiddos feel comfortable since they know the "steps" to each dance. Of the 28 available Koo Koo Kangaroo videos, I've only introduced 8 so far, which means the kids are really starting to learn the lyrics and movements, so they feel more comfortable participating. I think this is a key step in using GoNoodle in the classroom - start out slow with a few videos and get to know them well rather than overwhelm your kiddos with too many at once.

After recess we do "Chillax" which they love because it's funny. I love it because the deep breathing and calm movements help my kiddos wind down and get ready for nap time!

One of the best things about GoNoodle for me is the progress bar. After each video we figure out how many more videos we need to dance to until we get to the next level of the Champ. My kiddos are so excited about the transmogrifying machine its not even funny! After a video we hold up our ten fingers and then I say "We need 10, we've done 6. How many more do we need?" And I demonstrate putting down 6 fingers (or whatever number). Then we count how many fingers I still have up.

My kiddos have caught on really well and can now call out the number if its under 5 - identifying 3 fingers as 3 without me counting them individually for example, which is great! Some of them are even getting to the point that if we count and have 3 videos to go, after the next video they shout out "Now we only need 2!" without even having to count (we still do though!) This gives us lots of practice with knowing that we have 10 fingers all the time (or 5 on one hand, which can be a tough concept as many kindergarten and 1st grade teachers will attest to - the kids who still count all fingers even though they have 5 fingers up on one hand and 2 up on the other and could just be able to recognize that one hand has 5 fingers and start counting on from there)

This week we've been focusing on learning our colors (reading Pete the Cat, Mouse Paint etc) and I've been using the "Awesome Rainbows" video for that, so GoNoodle is helping with color recognition too!

And of course, at the end of the day we fit in some more GoNoodle time to help release some of the end of day excitement so that we can have a calm dismissal time! For that we usually do "Get Yo Body Movin'" or "This or That".

My kids LOVE to GoNoodle and I haven't even shown them 1/2 of what is available! As the year progresses and my kids gain more gross motor control, I'll be able to introduce the rest of the Koo Koo Kangaroo videos as well as KidzBop, Moose Tube, and Zumba Kids too! GoNoodle will be a constant in our classroom - a treat for the kids and a great behavior management tool for me! By providing brain breaks, I'll be able to keep misbehavior to a minimum since the kids will have a positive outlet for all their energy!

One of the best personal benefits of using GoNoodle in the classroom though? It is great exercise for me too! It really helps me reach my step goal every day - and let me tell you - the difference between my work week step counts and weekend step counts is rather sad! I think I need to start a new GoNoodle class just for me to use on the weekends lol!

As part of this weekend's GoNoodle Blogger Blitz, I get to giveaway a great piece of GoNoodle Swag! This pencil case is adorable ~ I would totally use it in my Writing Center to hold special markers and pencils! You can win it by entering the Rafflecopter below!

And don't forget to check out the Blogger Blitz link-up so you can see how other teachers are using GoNoodle in the classroom - and each blogger is giving away GoNoodle swag so you'll have lots of chances to win cool prizes too! BONUS! GoNoodle has given us a code worth 15% off all the GoNoodle swag in their store from September 4-11, 2015! Just use BTSwithGoNoodle at checkout for your 15% off stickers, t-shirts, tumblers and more!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway