Term 2 Week 8 Fidget Spinners and Moving to Learn

FIDGET SPINNERS!      

The newest toy sensation that has taken the must have world by storm!!

The Glenfield Mall stall selling them had a queue that took 10 minutes of waiting in .... as children who must have must have anything new and their parents who give in to everything their child must have (not need) want the new toy ......

It is a toy .... 

HOWEVER ..... There is a student in my class with a very severe stutter. So much so that over the past term he has resorted to writing down what he wants to say or share with the class in a discussion for me to read outloud for him as it takes so long for him to get the words out that he wants to say.  While he has the fidget spinner in his hand, the words are clearer and he is able to participate.  This really has been an excellent learning aid for him. 

Fidget Spinner   

Children are going to class with bodies that are less prepared to learn than ever before. With sensory systems not quite working right, they are asked to sit and pay attention. Children naturally start fidgeting in order to get the movement their body so desperately needs and is not getting enough of to “turn their brain on.” What happens when the children start fidgeting? We ask them to sit still and pay attention; therefore, their brain goes back to “sleep.”

I am very interested in movement and how this can help children to learn, from a SENCO perspective as well as a classroom teacher.  I havent yet got my thinking together enough to put forward an actual proposition. But from the work I was doing last year on the Skateboard programme that was based around movement from an occupational therapy perspective to the discovery I have with Cam and his fidget spinner, I think there is growing and growing evidence about how movement is a key area to get the brains active and ready to learn.

I have purchased a Unit from this link on STEM Fidget Spinners to use next term. 

Fidget STEM