Hands-on activities can be handy along with classroom pedagogies to ensure sensible training. While kids and teens may get indulged for better grades and academics, adults may participate in activities to instantaneously grasp skills. But, which learning style can be befitting, especially for pragmatic learners?
The behavior and attitude of the aspirant determine their learning styles. There are broadly four core learning styles: Visual, Auditory, reading & writing, and kinesthetic. When the pupil chooses to learn by the movement of hands and perception of their body maneuver, they are probably kinesthetic learners.
Kinesthetic learning, as we know, is a unique learning style in which the learner touches and feels the entity to learn about it, stipulating hand-eye coordination and finer learning. The edge is that such style may be preferred at all ages. Accordingly, what activities can be appropriate for such individuals?
Activities can be of varying complexities based on the age of aspirants. Consequently, here we traverse through kinesthetic learning activities for kids, college teens, and adults. Comprehending these can make you lucid with how such a learning style can be evident for anyone.
Kinesthetic activities for kids: Learning numbers and letters finer
Little ones are often enticing, they always look to explore and learn about new notions and entities. Kinesthetic learning may be a custom-tailored style to feed their enthusiasm with a practical approach. Kaj Gronbaek[1] outlines that Kinesthetic interaction supports body-kinesthetic learning as argued in the learning literature. Further, it is fun and motivating, which encourages children to explore and learn.
Here are a few activities that can encourage body-kinesthetic learning in toddlers.
1. Salt Tray Response
Salt trays are often used to create a plane to practice letters and symbols as an alternative to paper. Here the little ones can use their fingers to draw shapes, thereby ensuring kinesthetic learning. To start with, the Instructor offers a salt tray to the toddler. Now the little one is asked a question. The kid needs to present their answer by writing on the salt tray. For instance, If the question is Write ‘F,’ the toddler writes the letter. To get ready for the next questions, the toddler can erase the answer soon after the mentor evaluates it.
This activity is facile and interesting, especially for those who often play with sand and are kinesthetic learners. This activity also aids in amplified motor skills.
2. Find it out
The mentor needs to procure different toy models of animals, birds, things, fruits, vegetables, etc in a bucket and alphabet magnet toys in a box. To start with, the teacher will randomly pick out an alphabet toy from the box and students needs to find a relevant toy from the bucket whose name is starting from that alphabet. For instance, if the instructor picks out the letter ‘F’, the student needs to find say “fish” or “flower” toys.
This activity creates scope for the children to touch and feel various things around them. Furthermore, They learn the alphabet and different things around them from that alphabet.
3. Decipher Empirical problem
Adorning paper-based practices with a sensible touch can turn it into an enticing activity. To start with, the teacher provides 5 small balls to the kid. Now, the instructor asks a question. Say, what is 1 +2? The kid takes one ball in one hand and two balls in another. They now can count all the balls and answer back ‘3’.
Every kid gets a chance to touch and feel the ball as they count the answer, thus ensuring kinesthetic Stimuli. This activity can be further kinesthetic by making the little one write the answer in a salt tray.
4. Ball and Clay
To start with, the teacher needs to get a marker, a ball, a marker cleaner, and play clay. Mentor writes a letter on the ball and throws it to the student. Now the young one needs to identify the letter and create the shape using play clay. Once completed, the students show the clay shape to the teacher for approval. Once evaluated, the instructor can erase the letter and replace it with a new number/ letter to repeat the cycle again.
This activity ensures academics is mixed with sports to make it intriguing. Kids hold the ball to spell words and also create it with clay, ensuring touch and feel. The activity can be practiced almost everywhere, including on the beach on vacations, making it handy. Furthermore, making alphabets with clay ensures they learn to write these on paper effortlessly later.
5. Number Dicing
This facile activity can be icebreaking in the morning, or refreshment after a period. The mentor needs to arrange a dice and bowl full of chocolates to start. One student comes to the table and takes dice from the teacher, and rolls it. Now, the little one counts the number and can take the same number of chocolates from the bowl as a reward. This activity can be made yet more enticing by asking the student to create the number using these chocolates. For instance, if the number on dice is 4, the student picks four chocolates and forms “4” with those chocolates.
Dice is often an obligatory part of board games. For children, they may aid in motor skills, as they roll dice. The activity turns kinesthetic when the child turns to count the chocolates and create numbers themselves.
Kinesthetic activities for college teens: To ameliorate their academics
For teens and college students, kinesthetic simulations along with classroom pedagogies can be assistive, especially in fields like Nursing and engineering. Kayce Mobley[2] outlined some kinesthetic activities that are helpful for students, ensuring no reasonable stress is put on teachers.
He stated that kinesthetic examples could allow instructors to remain relevant in physical classrooms, offering a straightforward counterpoint to the recent trend toward MOOCs (massive open online courses) in higher education.
Here are some activities that can aid college-goers kinesthetically.
1. Decking Notions
Recalling the notions that were previously taught can effortlessly be ensured with note making or flashcards. Getting these cards in action later can make out an intriguing activity.
To start with, a group of students piles up their previously prepared flashcards from different subjects. Now, a student picks up a random card and puts out body movements to depict the subject and notion on the card to others. For instance, If the subject is math and the chapter is Circles, the student can form a circle with their hands to depict.
Involving bodily movement, along with an engrossing revision of lessons makes this activity a noteworthy kinesthetic pick.
2. Stick Angles
To start with, teachers offer students five sticks each. Now, teens are provided with a question whose answer is to be represented in the form of a model made with these sticks. For instance, a teacher may offer a geometry question and ask to solve them by making angles with sticks. A student can represent the answer by representing it holding the sticks at an angle of say 300. These sticks models can also be used for making molecular models for students whose studies are related to chemistry
This activity assists in inferring real-life models of academic problems, thus inferring the knowledge kinesthetically.
3. Instant Prototypes
College students often like to infer from simulations. To ensure learning, asking them to prepare prototypes can be a great idea. Say the teacher has explained about the difference in speeds due to difference in gear size, students may be asked to make a prototype of 2 gears with chain/belt with home-based collections like cardboard and paper. Their prototype can be evaluated later to ensure they have grasped the notion.
This activity can be a great take-in for automotive and engineering students, as they let them build and understand notions kinesthetically.
4. Cut-Paste Narration
In subjects like history, students learn about various kings and their acquisitions in detail. They may be asked to make a pictorial representation of an era to ensure the same. For instance, if they have been learning about the Argead dynasty, or the Mughal dynasty the professor may ask them to create a family tree and flowchart presenting successive rulers. Teens may procure images of kings, cut them, and then create a pictorial narration of the dynasty’s history on a poster.
This activity ensures pupils make use of fingers and touch the sheets to cut and make the right narrative, ensuring their retained knowledge kinesthetically.
5. Play Acting the Chapter
Literature students often expedite through works and plays. A scene can be acknowledged better by inferring it visually and possibly being a part of it. Consequently, to start the activity, the teacher chooses students for different characters of the play and then asks them to roleplay the scene for better comprehension of roleplayers as well as the other students.
Such activities can not only expose the scene but also highlights the emotional level of each character absorbing it better.
Kinesthetic activities for adults: Putting in lessons promptly
Contrasting to kids, Adults often can decide for themselves about what is significant to be learned. They often have a set of viewpoints that they have developed by their experience. Grown-ups often expect the learning to be immediately helpful. Kinesthetic learning can be helpful to those who desire to learn a new skill or information, feed inner desires or increase competence in the workplace. Here are some activities to ensure to keep them involved, active and capable:
1. Cook it Up
Cooking is a mix of multiple kinesthetic activities. Right from traversing through the kitchen to dicing vegetables to making enticing shapes out of doubt, every part of it is almost kinesthetic. The individual can take up the task of cooking and relate the ingredients with other notions and start learning them as they go forward with the recipe. While some like listening to music as they cook, some concentrate on the process.
This recreational activity is often believed to be a stress buster, while its stipulation of hand movements makes it a tremendous kinesthetic activity, especially mixing up the ingredients.
2. Simulacrum
Inferring from visual cues turns pivotal in some instances. Charades can be a great kinesthetic take-in for the same. This party game stipulates the individual to give visual cues aiding others to guess the word. As the person strives to offer the clue using their hand and body movement, retaining the notion turns easy later. To start with, a tray full of chits is prepared, each having a word on it. Now, a person picks one of these chits and sees the word. They should give visual cues to the other people in the activity, letting them guess that word. Say, if the word is Monkey, they can act like a monkey to demonstrate.
3. Group Debates
Sitting in a group and debating about a topic can give out multiple views on it. In corporate companies, employees are offered a topic to share their ideas and views. Such practices not only improve personalities but also generates leads to expand and develop for the company. Not only in corporations but group discussion can also be implemented in other professions as well. The clear edge of the activity is that each individual expresses their views with relevant hand movements to communicate better, ensuring kinesthetic influence.
4. Field Errand
Field trips are often cardinal to discern the actual working of the system. Practicing assignments in the field can be a great take on kinesthetic learning. For an engineer who visits the plant to learn about a new model, the motor can look to start and make demonstrations to learn it better. For instance, a group of junior engineers may visit a manufacturing plant and take turns to operate it to observe how it works. Such kinesthetic activities ensure each individual observes crucial detailing,
5. Presentations
In workplaces where employees come up with intriguing ideas, these may not efficiently communicate through a piece of paper or mail. A detailed presentation with slides and videos can add kinesthetics to it. Say a manager came up with a new idea to promote a T-shirt. Instead of elucidating about its traits, they may ask an employee to wear it, so that the essence can be discerned precisely.
Such activity ensures that the learners are properly involved because of their physical involvement, which ensures kinesthetic training.
Concluding thoughts
Activities can be often intriguing as they involve the individual, turning them energetic. Kinesthetic activities for every age group are depicted above. Expedite through them to check which of these can fit you and your little ones. Further, some activities can be apt for everyone. For instance, Playacting can work for both teens and adults too. These fun-generating activities can act towards refreshment being an effective learning strategy. The above-mentioned picks can be worthy for people preferring any learning style along with Kinesthetics.
References:
- Interactive Floor Support for Kinesthetic Interaction in Children Learning Environments. (2007). Kaj Grønbæk.
- Ditching the Desks: Kinesthetic Learning in College Classrooms. (2014, August). Kayce Mobley. https://doi.org/10.1080/00377996.2014.951471
An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’,