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BackgroundIn recent years, integrating physical activities with teaching curriculum has been explored across school levels. This project involved a co-design process with early childhood education and care (ECEC) teachers to produce activities that integrated gross motor activities with mathematics curriculum objectives. We piloted the motor-math programme in a local kindergarten and examined the effects on accrued physical activity, gross motor and mathematics skills.Methods Participants included pupils (N=41; mean age 52.84 SD 4.80 months; 19 males) from two matched kindergarten classes. Over a five-week period, we compared the motor-math programme with typical mathematics lessons. All participants wore pedometers to measure their number of steps during a three-hour class, one day per week. Gross motor skills (i.e., locomotor, object control) and mathematics skills (numeracy, geometry, math problem solving) were measured across three time points.Findings Over the five-week implementation, there was a significant interaction between time and group (F(3.05, 143.33)=2.83, p=0.04) on the participants’ average step counts per session; the motor-math group generated significantly higher step counts (t(39)=-4.79, p |
