Zingo Movement Break

Move to Learn Mondays are back! Yippee! As an OT, I am frequently asked for ideas for classroom movement breaks. As many of you are aware, I am big fan of embedding movement into curricular activities. However, when you are looking a movement break and you want a little diversity, a great game to have on hand is Zingo. There are all kinds of Zingo games. Zingo with Pictures (as shown below), Zingo with letters, Zingo with Numbers, and even Zingo to Go! Kids love manipulating the Zingo machine to get new tokens. Now, of course, you can play the traditional ways – as instructed on the box sitting at a table or chair. Or, to add a little Zing into your game of Zingo…and most importantly to add some movement to the game, have a student select a class game card for the day. At each break, have a student come to the front to manipulate the Zingo machine to distribute a tokens. Read/identify the token and then mime or move like the picture. For example, if it is a cat, do a cat pose. If it is a ball, pretend you are throwing and catching or kicking a ball. If it is clock, yell out times and have kids move their hands to show that time. Repeat two to three times per break. At the end of the day after multiple movement breaks, see if you can complete the card and as a class yell, Zingo!

Adaptations: If you have Zingo with Letters, move your body into the letters. Spell the Words. If you have Zingo with Numbers – choose a movement (e.g. Jumping Jacks or Standing on One Foot) and Zingo will tell you how many jumping jacks or how long you need to stand on one foot. The sky is really the limit. Remember – if you kids get squirrelly with movement breaks, remember to hold a pose for at least a count of ten after your movement activity and follow this hold with a breathing activity. It will bring your kids back down to “just right.”

I sincerely hope that this gives you a new idea if you have Zingo and lots of ideas for additional movement breaks in the classroom. Happy moving and grooving and be sure to ave a great week!

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