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Games to Teach Kinaesthetic Learners

Kinaesthetic learners are those students who take in information more efficiently when physically active. In contrast to their peers who learn best by seeing or hearing information, they retain and process concepts best when moving around or manipulating concrete items. Teachers who offer experiences that involve movement and manipulation will help these students to learn more effectively.
  1. Review Concepts by Playing Catch

    • Use a large plastic ball or beach ball for this activity. Use a permanent marker to divide the surface of the ball into small sections. Write a review question, a vocabulary word, a math fact or other stimulus that you want the student to answer in each section. Play catch with the ball and have the student respond to the question or problem in the section he is touching with his left thumb.

    Create an Obstacle Course

    • Some concepts, such as processes and stories of historical events, can be represented as a series of problems or challenges. Create or have the students create an obstacle course in which the obstacles represent stages or events. For example, an ocean crossing in the story of an explorer in history class might be represented by the relay race game of "Icebergs" where players cross an open space by stepping from one folded piece of newspaper to the next. Climbing a mountain might be represented by using a piece of playground equipment in the course or presenting a similar safe obstacle to climb.

    Use Jump Ropes to Promote Memory

    • Some kinaesthetic learners have improved success if allowed to memorize rote information while moving rhythmically. Jump rope games offer one way to do this. Have your students create a jump rope rhyme or paraphrase a favorite verse that incorporates the information to be memorized and allow them to chant the information as they jump.

    Develop Manipulative Card Games

    • Put information that can be paired, like questions and answers, math facts and answers, vocabulary and definitions or formulas and situations onto separate cards. Play variations of common games such as Memory, where players turn over two cards at a time to find a match, or Old Maid, where students choose cards from an opponent's hand and try to match them to cards in their own hand. Put information that can be grouped, such as names of people associated with historical events, equivalent fractions, or rhyming words onto cards and play games that allow students to collect matching cards, such as Rummy or Go Fish.

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