8 Excellent Activities for Kinesthetic Learners

8 Excellent Activities for Kinesthetic Learners

Is your special education student fidgeting during their therapy or teaching sessions? Does it seem like he/she has a hard time sitting still for an extended period of time? If so, you may have a kinesthetic learner on your hands. Thankfully, there’s a learning style for that! Kinesthetic learning (also referred to as “tactile learning”) is an approach that involves carrying out a physical activity as opposed to sitting and listening to a lecture or watching a demonstration. Children who are “kinesthetic learners” tend to illustrate what’s known as “physical memory” when taught in this manner and will retain more of what they’ve learned.

Here are 8 activities perfect for kinesthetic learners:

  1. Salt Tray: A great sensory exercise that helps with handwriting and letter formation. You can find recipes here.
  2. Simon Says: A classic children’s game that can increase listening skills and build vocabulary.
    Kinesthetic learning
  3. Hopscotch: Another children’s game that can be used to build vocabulary and math skills.
    Kinesthetic learning
  4. Chalk Learning: The perfect outdoor activity to spruce up homework assignments! Get creative with bricks and patio pads to write out math equations and geometry.
  5. Bird Nest Sensory Bin: This unique sensory bin is a great outdoor classroom activity and involves attention to detail and thoughtfulness. Fantastic Fun and Learning provides great step-by-step directions here!
    Kinesthetic learning
  6. Alphabet Yoga: This fun physical activity letter recognition activity allows children to create yoga poses modified by the letters in the alphabet.
  7. Legos for Multiplication: For this activity, you’ll need Legos, bricks for building boxes, and a sheet of paper with the number of candies that are needed to fit inside each box. Learn more here from Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls.

  8. Word Flippers: This word game activity is great for strengthening reading concepts and is easy to play in the classroom. You can download free word flipper printables here.

Have you tried any of these activities in your lessons? Are there other kinesthetic activities that have worked well for you? Please share in the comments below.

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