When Long Branch Elementary sought out ways to improve their student’s math and literacy skills, they depended on the support of a nearly $20,000 grant from the Community Foundation to implement the Math & Movement program into their curriculum. What began as a pilot study to help first and third graders resulted in a program that was easy to love and easy to implement.
Math & Movement created by author and education consultant Suzy Koontz, encourages children to crawl, hop, jump, dance and play their way to grasping the fundamentals of arithmetic and early algebraic concepts. Students can create and use “math-movements” to uniquely build number sense and improve their critical thinking and focus.
“I like M&M because we get to jump on the mats, so to me, it is like hopscotch,” said a third-grade student.
Brightly-colored floor mats and class dance routines all help students grasp concepts like skip counting used to become more proficient with multiplication.
“It is wonderful to see students laughing, moving, enjoying themselves, and learning,” said Robert McCrone, Long Branch Elementary Principal. “Math and Movement has provided all of this and more for our students.”
Long Branch Elementary had such success with Math & Movement that students in kindergarten and grades 2, 4 and 5 were able to experience the program as well. Due to its success, instructors are continuing the program beyond its initial introduction. Upcoming measures are expected to show an improvement in multiplication ability thanks to this investment in fun learning.
