Written by Jackie Thomas, OT For this 2019-2020 school year, Horizon Academy extended its school day. Usually when a school adds minutes to their day, it is intended to be used for instruction or classroom time. Horizon Academy decided to use its extra minutes by adding a component to the day that would make our students more successful, MOVEMENT!   Movement has been shown to  change neurochemistryincrease production of new brain cells and synapsesincrease blood flow and oxygen to the brainimprove attention to task help information enter into memoryimprove behaviorreduce stress and anxietyand an extra benefit of increasing the strength of the…

by Holly Hammond, Teacher According to the Universal Design for Learning (UDL), there are three primary neurological networks that impact learning: Multiple means of representation - Gives learners various ways of acquiring information and knowledge.Multiple means of expression - Provides learners alternatives for demonstrating what they know.Multiple means of engagement - Taps into learners' interests, offer appropriate challenges, and increases motivation. Keeping this in mind, teachers, families, and educators have a responsibility to provide students with multiple opportunities to learn. If we are lucky...it can be fun!   The following are tools and games to provide students with additional practice in…