Inclusive Learning: Movement in the classroom

I recently watching an ECT teaching French. I am always amazed by language teachers, they work relentlessly hard every single lesson. It is a real craft. Half way through a year 10 French lesson, the teacher stopped the class and said 'Scissors, paper, rock - three times - go!'. The students all turned to each other and played the game, complete with the joy that such a pointless and silly game comes with. The paused as a collective and then carried on.

My observation notes read 'Scissors, paper, rock - lovely idea - but why?'

Our discussion followed the lesson and she explained that such a content heavy lesson needs a break, her pace and challenge is such that she is working the students all lesson and so she builds in these breaks. As an Art teacher I often take it for granted that in many of my lessons, students naturally move around the room; however, recently I have had students working on more extended drawing and I have noticed an increasing number of them struggling to work for extended periods. My 'go to' movement activity is a 'silent gallery' or sharing a student's work; however, these can take some significant time. I was totally inspired by the playful, short nature of this idea.

Fast forward to covering a year 5 lesson on Friday. They had just had another cover teacher for the previous 30 minutes and had been stuck in their chairs. The instruction was to 'carry on' and so I drew out the inspiration from French and got them to put their hands in the air and wiggle their fingers, then they played scissors, paper, rock and to draw them back to a unit, we put our hands in the air again and wiggled our fingers. Several students exclaimed something along the lines of 'that was a great idea - I feel better for moving'.

When we think about the diverse range of learning needs we have in our classrooms, regardless of a diagnosis, students need to move.

Adding movement into your lesson will make it more inclusive, by keeping students in their seats but moving you could argue that you minimise lost learning time as well. I would argue though that it isn't lost learning time if the subsequent learning section is more productive and focused because you have let them move.

Is this part of your practice? Which techniques do you use?