MULTIPLE INTELIGENCE (Bodily-Kinesthetic)

Ability to control body movements and handle objects skillfully

• The capacity to use your whole body or parts of your body: (your hands, your fingers, your arms), to solve a problem, make something, or put on some kind of production
• The most evident examples are people in athletics or the performing arts, particularly when dancing or acting
• Uses physical movement and performance (a.k.a. learning by doing) to understand

We often talk about learning by doing.  This way of knowing happens through physical movement and through the "knowings" of our physical body.. The body knows a great deal that is not necessarily known by the conscious, logical mind, such as how to ride a bike, parallel park a car, dance the waltz, catch a thrown object, maintain balance while walking, and type on a computer keyboard.
If you are strong in this intelligence area, you tend to have a keen sense of body awareness.  You like physical movement--dancing, making and inventing with your hands, and role-playing.  You probably communicate well through body language and other physical gestures.  You can often perform a task much better after seeing someone else do it first and then mimicking those actions.  You probably like physical games of all kinds. and you like to demonstrate how to do something for someone else.  You may find it difficult to sit still for long periods of time and are easily bored or distracted if you are not actively involved in what is going on around you.
Careers:Gymnasts, physical therapists, models, mechanics, choreographers, actors, recreation directors, crafts persons, athletes, invertors, builders, dancers, circus artists, bodybuilders, doctors, nurses, exercise instructors, sport coaches, law enforcement personnel
BENEFITS to you when you strengthen Body Smarts in your life include: 

• Improving over-all functioning of your body and your physical movements
• Strengthening connections between the mind and body–we know they profoundly effect each other
• Gaining greater awareness of your "body language" and how to use your body to become a better communicator with others
• Discovering the innate abilities to train the body to "multi-track" or to perform a variety of tasks at the same time
• Gaining an awareness of how  to reduce stress in various regions of the body

Teaching Resources

• Illustrations and descriptions of historical costumes
• Cooking
• Dance
• Role playing or simulation

Basic MI Activities - Teaching Activities

• Internet based simulations
• Cooperative web searches or web quests
• Role playing activities that incorporate Web resources
• Classroom presentations

Instructional Strategies - Teaching Activities

• Simulations
• Modeling
• Role playing
• Analyzing manipulative

Bodily kinesthetic intelligence is related to physical movement and the knowledge of the body and how it functions; it includes the ability to use many parts of the body to express emotion, to play a game, and to interpret and invoke effective "body" language.  Those "at promise" in this domain enjoy and learn best from activities that use the body and involve movement, such as dance, crafts, mime, sports, acting and using manipulatives.

• Young children who demonstrate a strong bodily kinesthetic intelligence are highly coordinated and often quite tactile.  They enjoy all sorts of athletics and would rather be a participant than a spectator.  Also, this way of understanding the world is most evident in young children who have a hard time sitting still and are well coordinated.  
• Older children who demonstrate this type of intelligence may be good dancers or athletes, or particularly good at mimicking the classroom teacher.  
• Adults have a keen body awareness.  They enjoy physical movement, dancing, hugging, making and inventing things with their hands, including role playing.  They are easily bored if they are not actively involved in what is going on around them.  They communicate well through body language and similar physical gestures.  In general, those who are "at promise" in this intelligence like physical games of all kinds and demonstrating how to do things.  In fact, they can often perform a task after seeing someone else do it only once.

People Examples:

Barishnakov
Cathy Rigby
Tiger Woods
Michael Jordan
David Copperfield
Marcel Marceau
Charlie Chaplin
Harry Houdini
Mia Hamm