No, I’m not still pining away over the loss of Spring Break. I am referring to the break students need in the middle of a solid academic afternoon. The time when all of the eyes staring at you are clearly not processing a thing you are teaching. The moment when the kid, who has been trying desperately to pay attention, starts to fiddle with this pencil and squirm around. In my classroom, this is the time when we “stomp”.
What is “stomping”, you might ask? Everyone stands up behind his/her pushed in chair; we want as few obstacles as possible. Kids place feet hip distance apart with one in front of the other. As we jump up and switch legs, we count in unison. It really is quite a workout. Sometimes the kids move around the room while “stomping”. If things begin to get out of hand, we move right back to our seats. So, they’ve learned how to keep the fun at an indoor level.
I heard about this exercise years ago on a segment of 60 Minutes. The thrust of the piece was that kids are not active enough these days. They spend more time in front of the computer or television than they do outside running around. The action of “stomping” somehow encourages the development of good strong joints. One of the major issues with inactivity turns our to be week joints, go figure.
I tried it with the kids one day and now they ask for it all of the time. I even use it as bribe from time to time. “If you can finish the first 3 questions on page 87 we will "stomp" before math.” It doesn’t always work, but what does? If you ever need to “shake it up” a bit in the afternoon, take a minute or two and “stomp”!
