EL Expands Creative Movement Class

by Assistant Head of School for Academics David Long and Assistant Head of Community Engagement Gordon Mathis

Did you know that Galloway is one of only a few schools in Atlanta that offer a creative movement class in Early Learning? For the 21-22 school year, we expanded the Creative Movement offering with Ms. Farfan to all students in Early Learning, as neuroscience research shows that an integrated approach to curriculum engages students and deepens learning through a mind-body connection.

From Pre-K through 4th grade, there is a scope and sequence for the students’ development through Early Learning. Over an eight-day rotation, all students in EL participate in Creative Movement twice, for an hour each time (with the exception of Pre-K, who participates for a half-hour.  This year, Ms. Farfan will be integrating the arts curriculum into her creative movement classes.

For example, Creative Movement students in Pre-K and Kindergarten learn to match their study of the planets with physical movements. For gas planets, students move in a light and airy way; for rocky planets, they trudge in heavy and bound ways; for dwarf planets which exhibit a great deal of kinetic energy, students swirl around with a great deal of activity.

In first grade, students study the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly and its migratory habits and pathways in science. In Creative Movement, students receive a deeper understanding through a multi-sensory approach to scientific concepts as well as integrating the element of dance.

Second grade students learn to identify adjectives in Language Arts. For Creative Movement, students choose adjectives that define themselves; these descriptors are matched with sound and gestures, so the students match their identities with movement.

In third grade, students understand the difference between group space and personal space through physical movement. 

Fourth graders study the Civil Rights movement as a part of the Social Studies curriculum. Students will deepen their understanding of important events and historical figures through photography, poetry, and movement.

The program is so successful that the former McKerrow Conference Room in the Chaddick Center is now a full-time instructional space with plenty of room to move creatively!