Brain Breaks: Some Great Ideas

 

Brain breaks are to be used to break up the tedious tasks of learning. Brains get worked in different areas, and sometimes these areas need a break to reset and refresh. Brain breaks are short, movement involved, and may require a different (fun?) way of thinking.

The two brain breaks here not only involve movement, but stimulate in other ways as well. The second brain break below not only is a true brain break, but can also be incorporated to be a regular learning task as well. The best of both worlds!

Brain Break #1: Move Around

The goal here is to get the kids moving around, let off some energy. The class stands up and the teacher is the first to call out a movement. Let's say, "fish." When the teacher calls out fish, all students must start acting like a fish. After a few moments, the teacher calls the name of a student. That student then decides what to movement to call next. The class moves to that, and the teacher calls out another student's name. Repeat until your brain break is over. A variation of this is to let the students move around the room while doing the movements. It does not need to be an animal. It can be literally anything that moves, such as a clock, car, cloud, etc.

Brain Break #2: Which Would you Choose?

This one involves moving, so be prepared. Students all gather in the front of the classrom. The teacher asks a question with two choices. Such as, "Vanilla ice cream or chocolate." The students run/walk to the sides of the room that go with their choice. Tell them left for vanilla, right for chocolate. Have the students count how many are in each group, write the results on the board. Gather the students at the front of the room, and repeat the whole thing again with another choice question. Make up a bunch so you never need to ask the same thing twice. Do this as many times as you wish. Afterward, you could have all students maintain a journal and keep track of the results. They could make bar graphs, etc.

For more classroom games visit: Fun Classroom Games, and Variations on Silent Ball