Using Movement to Improve Literacy Helene Lieberman MS, OTR/L, creator of BlackBack Handwriting

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.

Movement to Reinforce Phonics

Movement can make letters come to life. When students understand that letters represent words and that these words are an important part of their environment, their interest and memory increases.  For example, when learning the letter sound for “D”, have the students walk around with a letter D card and find items in their environment that start with or contain the letter D.

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 hat, students might place a hat on their heads teach time they say it. These simple, repeatable gestures become cues that students can rely on when encountering the word again.  You can also incorporate vocabulary charades, in which students act out words while classmates identify them, actively processing their meaning.

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 or marching movements as they transition between activities. These movements give students a chance to release energy in a controlled way, and with clear expectations. You can also pair movements to sounds or letters focusing on two or three each transition. For example, when you say the letter M or the sound the M makes, the children have to do a small jump.

Children, especially young children, cannot and should not 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 everyone.