CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- This year, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Elementary Schools are incorporating more kinesthetic movement into their students days.
Grand Oaks Elementary created a spin off to CMS's brain, body and behavior program - calling it 'active owls'.
"I like this active owls program," 10-year-old Quinn Campbell says.
And there is proof that the program's "brain breaks" are benefiting specific students. All of the kids who are a part of this program have been hand selected. It proves they need this activity to do better in class.
"We've taken a lot of data," said Kelly Hockinsmith, the physical education teacher at Grand Oaks.
After 9 weeks in the program, 14 out of 16 kids improved their middle of the year state reading assessment, and 12 out of 16 maintained or improved report card grades in literacy.
"Movement helps regulate their moods, and it actually increases brain cells and helps them refocus," Hockinsmith added.
After starting the program, Grand Oaks Elementary did a survey with their parents. Of the 358 that responded, about 78.5% agreed or strongly agreed that the addition of more movement was helping their child.
Now the "Active Owls" approach is a part of several other CMS Elementary Schools - Ballantyne, Huntersville, Idlewild, Lake Wylie, Nations Ford, Polo Ridge and Winget Park elementaries.
A lot of student NBC Charlotte interacted with today said this was their favorite part of the day!
But let's face it, teaching and learning fractions isn't easy! Another teacher got creative in a different way by swapping seats. Instead of a normal chair, students are sitting in things that move, like a stools that wobbles, a bouncing yoga ball, a squishy seat on the floor or rubber bands that they can tap their heels on.
According to Day to Day Parenting online, research suggests that a child's age is the number of minutes a child can attend to a single assigned task!
After reading this, you probably need to go run around!