Using Movement as an Instructional Tool in Literacy

Close your eyes and imagine a primary classroom. Look around. What are the students doing? What is the teacher doing? Often, the image that comes to mind is one of students seated still and silent at their desks. Although students may have opportunities for movement during recess or physical education, movement is rarely embedded within classroom instruction itself. For young learners, this creates a disconnect between how they are expected to learn and how they naturally engage and interact.

Movement does not have to be separate from instruction. It can become a powerful instructional tool that supports both engagement and skill development. Instead of limiting movement to brain breaks or transitions, teachers can embed it directly into literacy tasks, allowing students to process content while they move. This approach gives students more opportunities to respond, think, and actively engage with new skills, and it can be done in a variety of simple, structured ways that align directly to literacy instruction.

In developing these movement-based instructional routines, I collaborated closely with our school’s PE teacher, Auburn Cain, whose expertise in purposeful movement helped shape many of the strategies.

Movement to Reinforce Vocabulary

Movement can be a powerful tool for helping students retain and recall important vocabulary. When students pair words with consistent, meaningful actions—rather than relying on repetition alone—they create a physical connection to meaning that supports both understanding and memory. For example, when learning the word monarchy, students might place a “crown” on their heads to represent a king or queen each time they say it. These simple, repeatable gestures become cues that students can rely on when encountering the word again.

Over time, the movement helps trigger recall and support comprehension during reading and discussion. Teachers can also incorporate structured activities such as vocabulary charades, in which students act out words while classmates identify them, actively processing their meaning.

The key to this approach is consistency and purpose. Movements should be simple, directly connected to meaning, and used repeatedly across lessons, which helps build deeper and more lasting understanding.

Movement-Based Practice With Accountability

One way to embed movement into literacy instruction is through a structured bingo system. Boards can be built using a mix of curriculum-aligned tasks, including required workbook pages, additional practice, Accelerated Reader quizzes, and teacher-created tasks tied to current instruction. Depending on the goal, boards may include must-do activities, allow for student choice, or require a full blackout.

Students can use the bingo boards during times such as morning work, early finisher activities, or after transitions, with new boards typically introduced each week. Before marking a completed square, students complete a movement such as a squat, jump, or clap pattern. Embedding movement within the task itself allows students to read, write, respond, and move while reinforcing key literacy skills.

Whole-Room Movement for Thinking and Discussion

Movement can also be used during whole group instruction to increase engagement and deepen thinking. Instead of responding from their seats, students move throughout the room to show their thinking and engage with classmates. For example, students may move to different areas of the room to indicate an answer choice, physically committing to their thinking before discussing it. After sharing with a partner, they move again to meet with a student who chose a different response, creating opportunities to explain, compare, and revise their thinking.

Simple routines help maintain structure during these activities. Students might squat once they have an answer to show they are ready, move to a specific area of the room to indicate their response, and then rotate to a new partner to explain their thinking. These predictable cycles of responding, moving, and discussing increase active participation while giving teachers immediate insight into student understanding. And using the full space of the classroom helps maintain engagement.

Purposeful Movement During Transitions

Transitions also provide an opportunity to incorporate larger, whole body movement into the school day. Rather than moving quietly from one space to another, students can engage in structured movements such as squats, small jumps, marching, or step-touch movements as they transition between activities. These movements give students a chance to release energy in a controlled way, and with clear expectations. These routines can also be paired with quick review or response tasks, allowing students to move while reinforcing previously taught skills.

For example, students might complete a squat for each sound in a word or march in place while responding to a quick review question. Transitions like these help maintain focus, support regulation, and create a more active learning environment without taking away from instructional time.

Young children shouldn’t have to sit and learn silently for hours at a time. Embedding movement into literacy instruction provides more opportunities for them to think, respond, discuss, and engage, and that’s a win for both students and teachers.