Social Skills and Transition Times: Helping 4K Students Thrive (South Carolina)

Profile

Cowpens Elementary is a public school in Spartanburg County School District 3 in South Carolina and serves roughly 425 students from Pre-K to 5th grade.

Melissa Allen is a 4K teacher in Spartanburg County, SC, with 14 years of instructional experience.

“[The students are] hearing it while they're doing it. They're seeing it. They're moving, and so it's really a helpful tool and a great supplement to use to go along with lessons or activities that you’re doing in your classroom. Give it a try, like I did.”
– Melissa Allen

Challenge

Learning for preschool-aged children centers on relational skills and physical coordination. Melissa Allen’s 4K students are no exception, and she felt they needed more physical activity in the classroom to practice their growing gross motor skills and problem-solving skills and develop emotional regulation. In addition, transition times between activities proved challenging for Allen’s students.

Solution

Walkabouts came to Cowpens Elementary through the South Carolina Innovation Grant Program. Allen observed that the Walkabouts active learning lessons are the perfect length for transition times between other activities, and she implemented them in her classroom immediately. Allen also pointed out that with Walkabouts, transition time is not wasted time because her students are hearing and using academic vocabulary while they move to the next task.

Additional Outcomes

In addition to transition time benefits, Allen feels strongly that the movement-based activities in the Walkabouts platform meet the needs of all her students, regardless of their individual learning styles and differences. She noted, “My highest achieving student may not need the academic component of Walkabouts. She may need the listening and following instructions components, whereas students struggling academically need to see and hear content in more than one way.”

Moreover, while completing Walkabouts, Allen knows that her students are learning to control their own bodies, identify and regulate their emotions, and empathize with others.