Cross-Crawls Help Learners Memorize and Apply Reading Strategies

Recently, children in the school reading lab were memorizing the "Fab 4" reading strategies. To do this they learned a key word for each step and the strategy which explained what it meant. The goal was for each of student to memorize, understand, and be able to use the strategy. To do this the children began by doing Cross-Crawls. Then they worked on memorizing the strategy and what it meant. Some of the strategies were longer, so when the teacher felt the children were having more difficulty, she would have them stand up and do more Cross-Crawls to help to refocus before continuing. As they did Cross-Crawls and learned, they also were able to apply the strategies they had learned . She said it was "a fabulous time of learning".

Brain Gym Activities Presented to Childcare Owners, Headstart Teachers, and Trainiers

On Saturday, I introduced Brain Gym Activities and how to use them with young children to Headstart teachers, childcare owners, and trainers at the Annual Childhood Conference on UVU campus in Orem, UT.

It was exciting for me, as most of those attending the presentation did not know about Brain Gym Activities but were anxious to learn. We began with PACE so that each of us would be in a more powerful position to learn. I told them a little about Brain Gym and how it began. Then I taught them how to do each of the Brain Gym Activities in PACE. We discussed the academic and behavioral implications of each of them and appropriate times to use them. I also taught them a few additional Bran Gym Activities.

It was fun and rewarding to observe their interest, enthusiasm, and application from the presentation. I especially loved their comments telling how they felt these things would help specific children they work with.