---

Dr. Daniel J. Levitin Author of "This Is Your Brain on Music" Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, McGill University

Very high quality production, and masterful integration of music and movement. A fun way for kids to learn cross-modal coordination: learning to integrate body movements with sound.

 

Scholastic TECH TOOLS | Author: Christine Weiser SmartMoves DVD Gets Kids Moving

 

One way to deal with the universally growing student body (literally) is to keep students active -- not easy in an education environment that focuses more on test-taking than recess. FableVision and Thinking Moves released a SmartMoves DVD that combines movement and music in short segments of physical activities, and they believe this will help increase students’ ability to learn. Based on the rapidly growing field of “embodied cognition theory,” which suggests that body movement increases the brain’s ability to learn. SmartMoves features a series of 40 body movements, choreographed to music, that are designed to increase students’ academic performance, information retention, and focus.
Bottom Line: The moves take between 3-5 minutes, so it’s easy to get students hopping around then back to work.

Children’s Technology Review™ SmartMoves: Body Puzzles for the Mind

 

Can you rub your belly and tap your head? You'll be able to after you play with this innovative DVD, which consists of video segments of "follow along" footage. Created in collaboration with Thinking Moves, this DVD leads students through a series of increasingly complicated body movements designed to work as "calisthenics for the mind". It features 40 puzzles ranging from easy to incredibly hard. Preschoolers can do the simple lessons.

We used the DVD during classroom transitions in a college technology class, and it worked nicely. It is a great way to bring a group of people together and get them focused. Note that you'll want to have a large screen projector, and a good sound system is nice (the ambient-style music is excellent)...

SmartMoves White Paper (Excerpt)

Something has changed. Experienced teachers have seen drastic changes in the classroom over the past few decades. More and more children in school develop learning disorders every year. Students have difficulty paying attention and following instructions, and they have a hard time reading and sitting still. More and more have developed severe behavioral and language problems. (US Dept of Health and Human Services, 1997)