If you’re the parent of an elementary school-aged child in the Quad Cities, chances are you’ve heard them come home from school singing Go Bananas, Little Green Froggy or Happy Llama, Sad Llama, Totally Rad Llama. It might surprise you to know that these seemingly silly songs were created by child development experts from across the country. The songs and their accompanying videos are part of a powerful suite of online learning tools called GoNoodle.
Available at school and at home, GoNoodle is designed to benefits kids’ physical wellness, academic success, and social-emotional health with a wide range of offerings that appeal to different ages, interests, skills and abilities. From jump rope rhymes and rap to yoga and deep breathing, GoNoodle is a hit with the elementary school crowd.
Here in the Quad Cities, teachers and parents have access to the premium version of GoNoodle, called GoNoodle Plus, free of charge, thanks to a sponsorship from Yavapai Regional Medical Center.
Teachers use short GoNoodle sessions throughout the day for students to get out of their seats and jump, dance, stretch and smile. Teachers know that these sessions increase focus and help students learn. In addition, they’re using the customized features offered in GoNoodle Plus to assist with math, spelling and social studies practice, tracking usage and more.
Parents use GoNoodle at home to turn screen time into valuable exercise time, often including the whole family in the fun.
If you have a K-5 student in Prescott Unified, Humboldt Unified or Chino Valley Unified School Districts, you may have seen them come home with Learning Extensions, printable worksheets and activities that are paired with more than one hundred GoNoodle videos. This is another added feature of GoNoodle Plus.
Whether you’re a parent or educator, you can get started by creating an account at GoNoodle.com. You’ll be asked to provide your name, choice of username and password, and whether you are a parent or teacher. Please note that you’ll have access to the GoNoodle Plus features automatically if you live in the YRMC service area.
“GoNoodle Plus aligns very well with our Vision of a Total Healing Environment which is based on caring for the body, mind and spirit,” says Kenneth Boush, Director, Marketing and Communications at YRMC. “YRMC is proud to sponsor programs like GoNoodle Plus, as well as Partners for Healthy Students and the YRMC Family Resource Center that enrich the lives of children and young families in our community.”
For more information on YRMC’s sponsorship of GoNoodle Plus, contact the Community Outreach Department at [email protected].