"Moving Bodies, Building Minds"

       "Moving Bodies, Building Minds" was written by, Michelle L. Marigliano and Michele J. Russo.  This  is article states that you can "Foster preschoolers' critical thinking and problem solving skills through creative movement". They recommend that teachers use the NDEO's (National Dance Education Organization) standards; to teach children how to express themselves by using creative movements. Marigliano and Russso wrote that most children are naturally active and use movement to express themselves and to explore the world. This article states that the children will learn how to use movement experiences to develop both receptive and expressive language skills.   Children will also learn how to think before they act, pay attention to details and learn how to reflect on different experiences so that they can learn from them.  
Teachers use the three E's method: Engage, Expand, and Empower. You can engage a child by selecting an element such as (big or little) and relationship (under, behind, around) as they dance to a song and watch their peers moves. The teacher can expand their student’s experiences through open-ended questions such as; what kind of animals were in the book? Can you show me how the snake in the book looks like when it slithers on the forest floor? Finally empower, you can empower a child in many ways by acknowledging the child’s achievements whether it’s making a shape, snake, or a movement to a song.

            This was a very educational article; especially for people who are in the early childhood education field.  Creative movement, is definitely a powerful tool in learning. Even as babies they use movement to discover the world and learn from their experiences.

            I personally have learned some great ideas on how to incorporate creative movements in different areas of teaching.  One of my favorite parts of this article was when the teacher had her students pretend that a part of their body was glued to the floor and each child had to find other parts of the body that they could still move. The children were able to discover different parts of their body's and all the different ways they could move them. When the teacher asked the students to think back to what movements their peers were doing, they were able to develop their memory skills. They then created a chart making a list of all the body parts and how they can move them using words like twisting, shaking, lifting etc. This was a great way to  teach them sight words and expanded their vocabulary.  Sometimes a teacher may need to redirect and scaffold a child for the child to be able to express themselves.They also were able to see what their peers were doing and asked if they could mimic it. They had to think about what they had saw and show their teachers how it was done. 

       Another thing I loved was how she sang songs and added shapes and letters in it.  The children had to use their body and make that shape on the floor; some on their own and some with assistance from their classmates.  The story books that have the CD's with them, are another fun way to reenact the book.  For instance if it was the Jungle Book, the children could imitate any of the animals, they could use this as an opportunity to show the other children how to become that animal.  The teacher could scaffold the students to help them come up with different ways the animals could move.  
      There was a passage in this article that was very inspiring it said: To the young child, verbal language and movement are entwined.  Preverbal movement expression does not cease when a child develops language.  The road to literacy involves the translation of movement expression and communication into words. Language and dance are not separate threads, but are woven together and incorporated into a fabric of communication and understanding. (NDEO 2005,4) I think this sums it all up.