Movement breaks in the classroom are an effective strategy for creating a dynamic classroom that keeps students engaged and encourages collaboration. Purposeful movement not only helps maintain focus but also creates opportunities for curiosity and interaction—essential elements of science learning. In this post, we’ll explore how movement breaks can support your students and share practical strategies tailored for the science classroom. However, these strategies are effective in all classrooms.
Why Movement Breaks Are Important
Providing opportunities for movement in the classroom is a universal accommodation that supports students with diverse needs. Movement fosters inclusion and creates a more dynamic learning environment for all students.
Movement and ADHD
Movement breaks are especially important for students with ADHD, whether they are predominantly inattentive, hyperactive, or a combination of both. For students with hyperactive ADHD, movement provides a much-needed outlet for energy, helping them refocus when returning to tasks. For students with inattentive ADHD, movement helps combat mental fatigue by resetting their focus and stimulating engagement. Purposeful movement allows all students with ADHD to re-enter the learning process with greater clarity and attention.
Supporting Academic Discourse
Movement breaks also promote academic discourse by encouraging collaboration and idea sharing. When students move and interact, they engage in meaningful conversations, ask questions, and build on each other’s ideas. This active engagement is especially critical in science, where inquiry and communication drive deeper learning.
Multilingual Students
For multilingual students, movement breaks provide natural opportunities to practice language skills in context. Interacting with peers during movement activities promotes speaking and listening, building confidence and fluency. These moments help students connect with both the content and their classmates while supporting their overall language development. Movement fosters a supportive environment where multilingual learners feel more engaged and included.
By incorporating movement into the classroom, teachers can create an inclusive, dynamic space where all students can thrive.
Purposeful Movement vs. Brain Breaks
Not all movement in the classroom serves the same purpose. Some teachers use unstructured time or SEL activities as breaks, while others incorporate movement through energizers or quick activities. While these strategies can be helpful, they often feel disconnected from learning goals. This disconnect can make it challenging for teachers to get students back on track afterward.
Purposeful movement, on the other hand, engages students in ways that build curiosity, foster collaboration, and reinforce academic skills. By designing movement activities that connect to science concepts, teachers can maximize the benefits of these breaks while keeping students focused and productive.
Incorporating SEL Activities
The CASEL SEL signature practices—Inclusive Welcome, Engaging Strategies, and Optimistic Closure—are excellent tools for fostering a supportive and dynamic classroom environment. Each practice plays a unique role in helping students feel connected and ready to learn.
If you’d like to learn more about SEL, check out the CASEL website.
Inclusive Welcome
A regular inclusive welcome at the start of class, unrelated to academic content, is a powerful way to build community. It creates a sense of belonging and helps lower students’ affective filter—the mental barrier that can prevent them from fully engaging when they feel anxious, unsure, or overwhelmed. When the affective filter is low, students are more open to learning and participating in class activities.
Starting class with an inclusive welcome is ideal because it doesn’t interrupt the flow of academic tasks later on. Whether it’s a quick greeting, a shared mindfulness activity, or a community-building prompt, this practice sets the tone for collaboration and engagement.
Engaging Strategies
Intentional movement activities, which will be discussed below, are examples of engaging strategies that promote active participation and collaboration. These strategies help students stay focused, interact with peers, and connect with the lesson in meaningful ways.
By incorporating these practices thoughtfully, teachers can create a classroom environment where students feel supported, engaged, and ready to learn.
Strategies for Movement in the Classroom
Incorporating movement into science lessons can be both purposeful and engaging when tied to academic goals. Here are three effective strategies for bringing movement into the classroom.
Stations
Using stations is an excellent way to get students moving while targeting specific learning objectives. Each station is designed to meet a particular goal, allowing students to engage with content in different ways. This approach not only promotes movement but also fosters active participation and independence.
For a deep dive into how stations can transform the science classroom, check out Nicole Van Tassel’s blog post on iExploreScience about using stations effectively. Her insights and examples provide practical tips for creating meaningful and efficient station-based activities.
Pick a Side
The pick a side strategy is a dynamic way to incorporate movement and student discourse. In this activity, students are presented with two choices and must pick a side of the classroom that aligns with their opinion or ideas.
Once students choose their side, they discuss their reasoning with like-minded peers. Afterward, they engage in discussions with students from the opposing side to explore differing perspectives. Importantly, students are allowed to change sides at any time if their thinking evolves during the conversation.
This strategy is particularly effective for practicing argumentation, and supports them in building a claim, evidence and reasoning. It encourages students to articulate their reasoning, consider alternative viewpoints, and revise their thinking—all while staying actively engaged.
To learn more about claim, evidence and reasoning, check out this blog post.
Give One, Get One
The give one, get one strategy combines movement with peer-to-peer collaboration. Students begin by writing answers to a question on 2–3 sticky notes. Then, they find a partner to share ideas. Each partner chooses one sticky note to share and takes turns explaining their responses. After discussing, the partners exchange the sticky note they shared.
Next, students move on to a new partner and repeat the process. They can choose to share the sticky note they received from their first partner or one of their remaining original notes. This process continues, allowing students to circulate and gather a variety of ideas while engaging in meaningful discussions.
This strategy not only gets students moving but also builds communication skills and encourages the exchange of diverse perspectives.
These movement strategies create opportunities for collaboration, critical thinking, and meaningful discussions, making them a valuable addition to the science classroom.
Strategies to Make Movement in the Classroom Successful
Purposeful movement can transform the learning environment, but success depends on clear expectations and intentional implementation. Here are three strategies to help ensure movement in the classroom is effective and productive.
Define Appropriate Movement
Start by discussing what appropriate movement in the classroom will look like, sound like, and feel like. Help students understand that movement isn’t a free-for-all; it’s a focused activity with clear goals. Discuss behaviors like moving quietly between stations, engaging respectfully with peers, and maintaining focus on the task. Creating a shared understanding helps set the tone for purposeful movement.
Model Movement
Students need to see what successful movement looks like in action. Take time to model the behavior and expectations for the activity. Demonstrate how to move between stations or interact with peers during discussions. You can even invite a few students to role-play scenarios. Modeling reduces confusion and helps students feel confident about what to do.
Start Small
Begin with short, structured activities to ease students into movement-based tasks. For example, a quick give one, get one activity or a brief station rotation can introduce the idea of purposeful movement without overwhelming students. As they demonstrate readiness, gradually increase the time or complexity of activities. This scaffolding ensures students build the skills needed to stay on task during longer or more involved movement activities.
By setting clear expectations, modeling behaviors, and gradually increasing complexity, movement in the classroom becomes a meaningful and manageable tool for engagement and learning.
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