(upbeat music) - Hi, everybody, and welcome back to Room 9, our region's largest classroom.

My name is the St. Louis, and I am a teacher at Rogers Elementary School in the Melville School District, and we are located in South St. Louis County.

Today, I'm here to teach a movement lesson that's geared towards children of all ages, so let's get ready to get moving.

Today, we're gonna begin by doing some warmup stretches before we dive on into our big focus for the day.

So we're gonna start from the top and work our way down.

So I'm gonna begin by shaking my head yes.

Up and down.

And no, side to the side.

And maybe so I'm gonna bring in my ear towards my shoulder and switch, back and forth.

I don't want to go too fast because I don't want to hurt my neck.

Gonna go back and forth.

All right, let's move to our shoulders.

Can you bring your shoulders up and down.

Up and down.

All right, we're gonna do some arm circles.

So make sure that you have enough space around you.

A good way to check is to put your arms straight out and twist to make sure nothing around you or no one around you, you'll hit.

Also make sure you lift your arms up, and back down because if there's something in your way that you might run into, you could hurt your hands, so it's always good to check first.

So let's start by putting our arms out to the side, and we're gonna be really small circles towards the front.

Really small circles, bringing your arms forwards.

Now, can you get your arms to go a little bit bigger?

And a little bit bigger.

And really big.

Arms forwards.

Very good, now we're gonna put them back out.

We're gonna try and go backwards.

So I'm gonna bring my arms towards the back, towards the back in little circles.

Let me get a little bit bigger.

And bigger.

And as big as you can.

Very good.

All right, now we're gonna do some scissors.

So I'm gonna bring my arms out to the side again, and I'm going to bring them across in front of me, and back out.

Across in front and back out.

Just like a giant pair of scissors would move.

Very good.

All right, we're gonna move on to our core or our trunk.

We're gonna start by putting our hands on our hips, and I want you to lean backwards a little bit, and forwards a little bit.

So if I turn to the side, you can see I go backwards a little and forwards a little.

Back and forth.

I'm not gonna do it too fast.

I'm gonna make sure I feel that stretch.

All right, now facing back, I'm gonna go side to side.

Side to side.

Side to side.

Very good.

All right, now I'm gonna keep my hands on my waist and I'm gonna bring this elbow and I'm gonna point it towards the front.

And so I'm just gonna turn.

My feet don't move.

They stay stuck to the floor.

All I'm gonna do it is move my core toward, so I can move my elbow towards the front.

So I'm gonna twist, and now I'm gonna bring the other elbow forward and twist.

And twist.

And twist.

Let's do four more.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Very good, all right, we're gonna keep moving down.

I want you to stand up and reach as high as you can.

Stretch up really tall.

We're gonna keep our feet together, and we're gonna reach down and try and touch our toes.

If you can't reach your toes, reach as far as you can.

So if I can only reach my knees right now, that's okay.

I want you to just reach as far as you can.

If you can't touch your toes or the floor, that's okay.

Just pull to where you can.

We're gonna count to five.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five, and slowly stand back up.

Now we're going to spread our feet into a straddle.

So we're gonna bring our feet out to the side, almost making a triangle with our legs and the floor.

All right, I'm gonna stretch up really tall again, and I'm going to reach down to one side.

Again, if you can't touch the floor, that's okay.

Just reach as far as you can, and we're gonna count to five.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

And slowly come up.

Stretch up in the air, and reach to the other side, going as far down as you can, and let's count to five.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five, and slowly come up.

Now let's try and see if we can touch the floor in front of us.

I'm gonna stretch up real tall, and I'm gonna reach straight down.

And I'm gonna count to five.

One, two, three, four, five.

Very good.

Now I'm gonna bring myself down to the floor and sit on the floor.

I'm gonna bring my feet out in front of me and I want my feet to touch.

All right.

This is our butterfly position because our legs kind of look like a butterfly.

Can you move your legs up and down.

Up and down, so I'm gonna keep my feet together and just move my knees.

All right, now I want you to see if you you can bring your nose all the way down to your toes.

If you can't get it that far, that's okay.

Just reach far as you can.

Bring your nose down towards your toes.

And come back up.

Right, up and down.

See if you can go back to that butterfly.

Up and down.

Very good, let's go one more time, trying to bring our nose to our toes.

If you can't reach all the way, just go as far as you can, bringing them down.

Let's count to three.

One.

Two.

Three.

Very good, come on back up.

All right, the next thing we're gonna do is we're gonna practice our table.

So I'm going bring my feet out in front of me, and I'm going to bring my hands behind me.

So my hands are gonna be on the floor behind my back.

And now I'm going to try and lift my stomach up towards the ceiling.

I want you to imagine that there is a string hanging from the ceiling, and it is tied where your belly button is.

And as that string gets pulled, we're going to get lifted into the air.

So my belly button is going to lift towards the ceiling.

So I'm gonna put my hands behind me, and I'm going to lift my belly button up into the air.

Let's see if we can hold it for one, two, three, come down.

Oh, that was good.

You guys did really good with that.

Do you think we can hold it for five seconds this time?

Let's give it a try.

Are you ready?

We're going to raise our belly button up towards the ceiling and we're gonna count to five.

One, two, three, four, five.

Come on down.

That was very good.

All right, today, boys and girls, now that we're all warmed up and stretched out, we're gonna dive into our focus.

Today, we're gonna be focusing all on balancing skills.

Balancing is when maybe we only have one foot on the floor, and we have to stay standing straight and tall.

Now we balance a lot when we're at school, but usually it's because we have two feet on the ground, right?

Sometimes though, we might have to put one foot on the ground.

Maybe when we're in PE class, we'll do some balancing skills.

This is all week, so really great practice for the stairs.

I know in my school, we have a lot of stairs.

So practicing our balance, it's great, especially if your line has to stop on the stairs.

So today we're gonna practice our balancing skills, and we're gonna work our way up to the tough skills.

So to start today, we're gonna begin by standing up.

And you're gonna need something to help you balance.

Now, I am gonna use this bucket that I found.

You could use a box, if you have a box.

You could use a couple of books that you stack together.

Anything to kind of give you a little bit of height, okay?

So I'm gonna start by standing behind my box, and I'm going to lift one foot up and put it on the box.

So I'm gonna rest my foot on the box.

It's not above the box.

It's right on top.

So I have one foot on the ground and one foot on the box.

Very good.

All right, so when I balance, If I start to feel myself kind of wobble, okay, it might mean that I need to change my hand position.

So you can leave your hands by your side, you can put your hands on your hips, or you can make your airplane wings and bring them straight out to the side.

But we don't want to be leaning back and forth.

We want to have a straight airplane, right?

Imagine that there are people flying on your airplane.

If I am wobbling back and forth, those people flying on my airplane might not be feeling their best, so I want to keep it nice and steady.

Now we're gonna bring that foot that's up, and we're gonna bring it back down to the ground.

And I'm gonna switch.

I'm gonna put my other foot up on the box, and then I'm gonna hold it there.

As you do this practice, where do you think you want your hands?

Some people find it more comfortable here.

Some people find it more comfortable here.

It's whatever works best for you.

I like to put my hands out to the side so I can really see how my airplane is flying.

Very good.

I'm gonna bring my hands down and bring my foot back down.

Now this was an easy way to practice our balance.

But some of you might be saying, "I need something a little bit more challenging."

Are you ready for the next step?

Okay, I'm going to put away my bucket or my box for my books.

And I'm going get a ball.

Now, I borrowed this ball from my dog, Winnie, so you could use any ball you have.

If you have a big basketball or kickball or soccer ball, you could use that.

Now we're not going to be kicking the ball.

We're going to use this as a tool to help us with our balance.

So I'm gonna set it on the floor in front of me and hope that it doesn't roll away.

And now, just like I practiced lifting my foot on to the box, I'm gonna lift my foot onto the ball.

But what do you know about balls versus boxes?

What do balls do?

That's right, they roll.

So when I put my foot on the box, it didn't move.

But when I put my foot on the ball, what do you think might happen?

That's right, it might move.

Oh, I might even have a friend coming to move it right now.

Let's hope it stays here.

So it's gonna move.

I'm gonna really have to focus on my balance.

So when I talk about my balance, I want to make sure that I'm standing straight up and tall.

I'm not leaning forwards or to the side.

I want to stand straight up and tall, just like we stand when we walk in the hallways.

Then I want to make sure, ooh, leave that there.

Then I want to make sure that I am paying attention to where my arms are, right?

We practiced hands on our hips, straight by our sides, or out in the air.

That's going to help me keep my balance.

I want to make sure that I'm squeezing my tummy to stand up tall.

And sometimes, I even have to squeeze my bottom to help me stand straight.

Are you ready?

So I'm gonna put one foot up on the ball, and then I'm gonna practice holding my balance.

And it might take you a second to practice.

Now, as I look out, try and focus on one thing.

So I can see a light switch ahead of me.

I'm gonna stare just at that light switch, and we're gonna see if we can hold this for five seconds.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five, and come down.

Now I'm gonna switch.

I'm gonna put my other foot up on that ball, and I'm gonna hold it again.

First get my balance.

Where are my arms best?

And I'm gonna count.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Very good, and you can come back down.

Now that was a little bit more challenging, because even if I slightly moved my foot, the ball was going to move too.

So now, you're gonna like, let's kick it up a notch.

This time as I put my foot on the ball, I'm gonna practice pushing the ball forwards and backwards, using my foot, oh let's scoot to the side.

Winnie's watching.

I'm going to bring my foot forwards and backwards.

Still standing nice, straight and tall.

not leaning forwards.

Not leaning to the side.

I want to stand up straight and tall, and I'm just gonna bring my foot forwards and backwards, moving the ball, practicing that balance.

I'm not kicking it.

My foot never leaves the ball.

I'm just moving it forwards and backwards.

Forwards, and backwards.

Then I can try moving it side to side.

This one's a lot trickier.

So I really have to make sure that I'm standing straight and tall, squeezing through my balance.

And bring your foot down.

Whoo, get your wiggles out.

Get your wiggles out.

That was tough.

Are you ready to try the other foot?

All right, I'm gonna start by putting the other foot up on the ball, and I'm gonna move forwards and backwards, forwards and backwards.

Going slow.

Don't go too fast.

The faster I do things, the more likely I am to lose my balance.

So start slow and steady.

And the more practice we get, the faster we can go.

Forwards and backwards.

My foot never leaves the ball.

Now let's go side to side.

Side to side.

Remember, this one's a little harder.

If you ever lose it, that's okay.

Just bring it back, side to side.

Side to side.

Really practicing my balance.

And bring your feet back down.

All right, we're done with the ball.

Winnie?

All yours.

All right.

Now we're gonna kick it up a notch.

We've been practicing our balance by using tools to help keep one foot elevated or off the ground.

So first I used my bucket to help bring my foot and have something for it to rest on.

Then I used a ball, which was a little bit more challenging, but I still got to put my foot down.

Now we're going to practice lifting our foot up into the air without any support.

Right, so again, make sure that you're standing up straight and tall, and I'm just going to bring my foot right up in front of me.

So I have to kind of shift my weight all onto a one leg that's gonna be on the ground.

And I'm going to slowly lift that foot up and hold it in the air as long as I can.

And I can bring it back down.

Let's try with the other leg.

We're going to slowly lift it up in the air, holding my balance, standing straight and tall, and bring it back down.

So as we lift our leg up, we're bringing it up right in front of us, holding my balance, and bringing it back down, switch sides.

Hold it up in the air, holding my balance, and bring it back down.

All right, are you ready to challenge yourself?

Let's see if we can hold our balance for 10 seconds on each side.

We're gonna start, pick your favorite side, whichever you want.

Are you ready?

And we're going to lift the leg up and count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10.

Bring your leg down, and let's switch.

Bring that other leg back up.

Are you ready?

And up, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10.

And bring it down.

Whoo, get those wiggles back out.

How are you guys feeling about balancing so far?

Really good?

All right.

We're gonna take a quick hydration break as we get in all of some extra water.

We've been working so hard, and then we'll come back and we'll try some balance-challenging exercises.

See you in a little bit.

All right, so now I have a couple different games that you can practice and play to work on your balance.

So for the first, you're gonna need a bucket or maybe an open box, and then you'll need some balancing tools.

I'm gonna use these socks.

But if you don't have socks, you can always use beanbags, or small little stuffed animals.

Those would work as well.

So in this game, we're gonna practice giving our socks an elevator ride.

So I'm gonna start by putting a sock on my top of my foot, and then I'm gonna use my balance to elevator ride up that sock and put it in the bucket.

Now, when we do this, we want to make sure that we practice using both sides.

Some of us have one side that we're really good at balancing at, but we want to make sure that both sides are just as strong.

So this time, I'm going to place my sock right on top of my other foot, and I'm going to elevator ride up and drop it in.

And I can do that again.

Now each time as I go, I can practice bringing my elevator ride up higher.

So how high can I get my elevator to go before I drop it in?

Okay?

So this is a really great way to practice bringing my foot up, getting my balancing and moving as I do this, okay?

And make it even harder.

Practice bringing your foot around.

Whoop.

And if you miss, it's okay.

You get to try again.

So let's see if this foot can do it.

I'm going to bring it up, and drop it in.

That's one way that I can practice my balance.

Another way, I'm going to need maybe some little floor markers.

I'm gonna use post-its because that's what I have, and I'm gonna place them on the floor in front of me.

And I'm just gonna place them around in front.

I have four out.

Now, I'm going to do some foot taps.

So I'm gonna practice bringing my foot up, and tapping it on each of the post-its.

And then I get to switch, and I can bring it up and try the other foot, tapping on each of the post-its as I balance around.

To make it even a little bit harder, I can not let my foot touch the ground as I just hover it over the post-its.

A little bit more of a balance trick as I go.

So I am lifting my foot up, and I am just hovering it over.

It's not touching the floor.

It's just barely balancing over that post-it.

So as I go around, I can practice.

First, if you want to start with two post-its and just use the easier two.

The farther I have to go to the side, especially when my leg crosses over, that's when things are a little bit tougher for my balance, because I'm starting to throw off the way that my body is leaning.

So I really have to make sure that I am up straight and tall, and it might mean that I have to kind of move my body.

That's where our balance practice comes in, okay?

Really practicing giving my balance.

All right.

So boys and girls, these are some really great, excellent ways for us to practice our balance.

Balance is a skill that we will use for all of our life, whether we are practicing sitting on a bench in the cafeteria, standing in line, or walking up the stairs, we use our balance every single day, and it's a skill that we really want to make sure that we practice to help keep ourselves and the people around us safe.

Now, as we finish up our day, we're gonna end with a mindful moment.

So today, I want to practice doing a star breath.

So a star breath is when I take a big, deep breath in, (inhales) and as I blow it out, I draw the shape of a star in the air, okay?

So I'm going blow my breath up and back down.

I'm gonna bring it across, and back over, and back together.

Now if a star's a really hard shape for you to make with your breath, you can make a different shape.

Maybe you try making a circle or a square.

Any shape that you would like.

So I'm gonna take my deep breath in.

(inhales) And as I blow it out very slowly, I'm gonna draw that shape with my air.

(exhales) Okay, and I can do that a couple of times.

Let's do it again; draw your shape.

This time, I'm gonna draw a square.

(inhales) Deep breath in and blow it out.

So we might use our star breaths or our square breaths as a really great way to practice taking deep breaths and slowly breathing them out.

You'll notice that as you do that, your body begins to calm down a little bit.

This is a really great strategy to use if you're feeling frustrated.

Let's say we're playing one of our balancing games and you keep falling over, and it's really hard.

That might make you feel a little bit frustrated inside.

By taking a moment to stop and do one of our breaths, let's try one.

Let's do a circle this time; are you ready?

Deep breath in, (inhales) and blow it out.

When I do my breath, I give my body a chance to calm down.

I get a chance for my brain to refocus.

And then I'm ready to try again.

And sometimes when I try again, that means I try with some modifications.

If you're not ready to do my foot taps all the way across the side, play one of the different games.

Sometimes, it just takes a little bit of practice to get our bodies ready to do these new skills.

Don't ever give up.

But, maybe take a break, come back, and try again.

Those star breaths, square breaths, or even circle breaths are a really great way to refocus our body when we're maybe feeling a little bit frustrated.

Then it's not even just with balance.

Sometimes we might get frustrated with our siblings, and we need to take a break before we're ready to go back and try and problem solve.

Star breaths can be used at any time of the day.

They're small, fast, and they don't take any materials.

And they're sometimes kind of fun.

You can make so many different shapes.

What shape will you try with your next star breath?

I don't know.

All right, so boys and girls, that brings us to the end of our movement lesson for today.

I hope you had fun practicing your different balance skills, and I hope you start to practice those every single day.

Even just a couple minutes a day will really help to improve those balancing skills.

But remember, every single day we encourage you to do 60 minutes of physical activity.

Anything from walking the dog to riding your bike.

Things that get yourself up and moving.

60 minutes a day.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Teaching in Room 9 is made possible with support of Bank of America, Dana Brown Charitable Trust, Emerson, and viewers like you.

(upbeat music)