Multimedia program gets students moving while they learn

Lily Ahnert, foreground left, and Gavin Dixon, along with fellow third-graders at Callaway Hills Elementary School, follow along with a video as they mimic exercise moves and sing. Using GoNoodle Plus, they sang and answered math questions, all while exercising to music and follow-along steps and movements shown on the smartboard.
Lily Ahnert, foreground left, and Gavin Dixon, along with fellow third-graders at Callaway Hills Elementary School, follow along with a video as they mimic exercise moves and sing. Using GoNoodle Plus, they sang and answered math questions, all while exercising to music and follow-along steps and movements shown on the smartboard.

To use one's noodle is an expression meaning to think about something, but third-graders at Callaway Hills Elementary School on Tuesday took it one step further, literally, and used their GoNoodle to run, jump and dance while they learned.

GoNoodle is an online multimedia channel launched in 2013, and it's designed to encourage school kids to be physically active, as well as engaged with learning.

"Research tells us you have 10 to 15 minutes of focus time with kids," Callaway Hills Principal Todd Shalz explained. After that time, it's easy for kids to zone out. Shalz said using GoNoodle to keep students physically and cognitively engaged in the classroom is a "win-win."

David Hanzlik, a representative of GoNoodle, was at Callaway Hills on Tuesday with Terry Atteberry of Alliance for a Healthier Generation, Paula Ballew of Missouri Foundation for Health and Nicole Stacey of the Jefferson City Public Schools District. They were all in Andrea Stegeman's third-grade classroom with Shalz to watch a demonstration of GoNoodle Plus - the premium version of the movement video and game channel that offers options of two- to five-minute-long activities.

GoNoodle and Missouri Foundation for Health recently announced a partnership to provide elementary schools in 13 communities in the state free access to GoNoodle Plus that began in January.

The regular version of GoNoodle was already in use at Callaway Hills; Stegeman said all the teachers in the building have access but wasn't sure if every room was using it. Nationally, a news release for GoNoodle and the Missouri Foundation for Health reported GoNoodle is used in 80 percent of U.S. public elementary schools in all 50 states.

However, GoNoodle Plus gives teachers like Stegeman more options for customization. She explained she can add in her own questions and can share those with other teachers using the program.

To demonstrate, Stegeman brought up the "Mega Math Marathon" game - labeled as an "energizing" activity - as her third-grade students got to their feet and stood together in front of a screen on one wall of the classroom. A student selected addition as the skill category, and Stegeman selected adding with re-grouping as a sub-skill.

As the game started, animated silhouetted figures of kids started jogging down a residential street as math problems popped up on the screen.

The students in Stegeman's class shouted the answers, and when they got a few correct sequentially, the animated figures sped up to boost the students' pace of running in place.

After running the math marathon, Stegeman brought up a "calming" activity video titled "Believe in Yourself." As a video of a boy break dancing in slow motion played in the background, the students were asked to meditate about something they want to do well.

The more activities students complete, the more their selected avatar or "champ" is upgraded as a reward. Champ "Blob Ross" - a cartoon creature modeled after painter Bob Ross - maxed out its upgrades, and Stegeman printed out an achievement poster to share with the class.

She explained GoNoodle also has an "indoor recess mode." If the weather outside is nasty, like it typically would be in February, students can stay active even if they have to stay inside.

Abree Richardson, 8, said the "Kidz Bop" videos are her favorite activities, in particular the video for artist Rachel Platten's "Fight Song."

Shalz joined with the kids on dancing to that tune - after the students followed along to the live-action slides, arm-raises, arm-pumps and other dance moves of three kids on screen for Justin Bieber's "Sorry."

Nine-year-old Laycee Jeffries said she likes "that you get to move and dance and have a brain break sometimes." To her, having a "brain break" means just getting to have fun.

While Kidz Bop is "by far the class favorite," Stegeman said her personal favorite of the GoNoodle program offerings is "Blazer Fresh," an academic rap group that performs about things like how to count money. She also said her class has been playing a game about states of matter.