In one Pee Dee school, you can forget about teachers asking students to sit still. They’re doing anything but sitting still in the first grade at Lester Elementary School in Florence.
Jessica Crowson ordered “stability balls” for her class after winning a grant to pay for them. Each has little legs to hold it in place, but Crowson encourages students to bounce around, even incorporating some bouncing in her lesson plan. She says it helps young students focus.
“Instead of having to play with their pencils, play with their erasers, they’ll able to do just little bounces, and little bounces gets that movement out, and it keeps their body moving but also keeps their focus on me,” Crowson says.
The balls don’t fit under desks. So instead of teaching kids to push their chairs in, “we tell them to peak their ball out,” Crowson says.
Parents say they were surprised at first, but have seen improvements in students’ focus.
“I know my son, Russell, has that extra energy they want to get out, so I knew it’d be good for the children,” says Stephanie Jenkins, a parent.
