Pioneering program is first of its kind in Virginia
The saying, “Let kids be kids,” may hold more merit than you think.
An innovative program at Rappahannock County Elementary School allows students to expend some of their energy in ways that will improve their performance in the classroom. Called Action Based Learning (ABL), students participate in research-backed activities that focus on movement and fundamental motor skills.
“Movement anchors learning, anchors all the concepts that kids learn,” said Jackie Tederick, wellness integration coordinator for Rappahannock County Public Schools.
In the ABL lab, which serves nearly 150 children — kindergarten through second grade — students complete an hour-long rotation of 10 stations, each addressing a different area of movement, such as fine motor skills, balance and strength. Each movement correlates directly to a traditional curriculum area. For example, a child who struggles to cross the midline, reaching across the middle of the body, may also have trouble reading left to right or placing words on a page.
The ABL lab is part of Commit To Be Fit (C2BF), an initiative within the school system that promotes healthy lifestyles. C2BF was made possible by a grant from the PATH Foundation, Tederick said, and the lab is “kind of the cornerstone of our program.”
The C2BF team was among the first to work with Action Based Learning — the South Carolina-based company that developed the concept — to create a lab of its own in 2018. Darlene Mulcahy, client services manager at ABL, said Rappahannock is the only county in Virginia that has an ABL lab.
According to research from the United States Department of Health and Human Services, there is a conclusive link between physical activity and academic and cognitive performance in school-aged youth. Physical activity can alter the brain’s physiology, aiding in blood flow, oxygenation and neurotransmitter levels, all of which improve attention and information processing.
Tederick said students enjoy their time in the lab, and the team tries to make the environment fun by playing music and changing out the stations periodically to keep them engaged.
“They don’t realize that they’re actually filling some gaps for us. And they don’t know that really behind it, we’re trying to…prepare them for learning.” Tederick said.
Photos | Letting kids be kids at RCES
An innovative program at Rappahannock County Elementary School allows students to expend some of their energy in ways that will improve their performance in the classroom. Called Action Based Learning (ABL), students participate in research-backed activities that focus on movement and fundamental motor skills.
Jeremy Gates and Kayla Midkiff, both wellness integration specialists at RCPS, oversee the lab and help students complete the stations. Gates said when lab time is over, students are already eager to come back. “Every day, I’ll have like…10 kids say, ‘when are we going back to ABL?’”
Along with reviewing new research, the C2BF team is conducting its own. When students returned after the COVID-19 pandemic, the team studied what movement gaps the children were exhibiting, worked one-on-one to bridge them and, in the end, were successful, according to Holly Jenkins, wellness integration and promotion specialist with RCPS.
In the future, Tederick said she hopes to expand the program, serve more students and broaden the support and education of teachers in classrooms.
“It’s really rewarding to know that we’re benefiting the classroom here in our lab.” said Tederick.
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