Brain Breaks

In the dictionary, a "brain break" is defined as "a short mental break, taken at regular intervals during instruction, and used to achieve optimal learning."

OK, I made that up, but that's the definition I have in mind when I use brain breaks in the classroom. :)

Why Use Brain Breaks?

As a teacher, you don't have a lot of control over your students' schedule. I mean, you can usually decide when to do math, when to do reading, etc., but you don't get to decide when you leave the classroom for library, specials/encore/activity, lunch, or recess. Sometimes, there is an usually long block of uninterrupted instructional time. For instance, during my student teaching, I taught a kindergarten class who had our specials (P.E., art, etc.) first thing in the morning, and then lunch and recess from 10:45 - 11:45. That meant we had from 11:45 until 2:45 that afternoon before we needed to start getting ready for the dismissal. When you're surrounded by 22 five-year-olds, that three hour block of time can be a lot to handle. (Not to say I didn't l-o-v-e my kinders with all my heart -- I did. But they definitely kept me on my toes, especially since that my first "real" experience teaching!)

While a long block of instructional time is a blessing in some ways (think about how much you can get accomplished!), it can also be a bit of a burden. Kids -- especially the little ones -- have short attention spans and crave variation and movement. Teaching kinders for an entire, uninterrupted three hour block of time was sometimes stressful. And, of course, to them, three hours is FOREVER.

I started breaking up the instructional time with "brain breaks." If I had a lesson that was supposed to last 30 minutes, I would insert a short brain break about halfway through so that the students got to have a little mental release from learning for just a minute before going back to work. 

I do this with my tutoring students (2-4 brain breaks per hour of tutoring unless the student has ADD/ADHD, and then we break more often) and the classes in which I sub. I even did it sometimes with my freshman English students last year. At first, they thought I was a little crazy for asking them to do the Macarena, but they eventually got used to it! :)

I always find that the minutes right after a brain break are incredibly valuable, as the students are the most engaged that they've been...well, since the last time we took a break! The activity gets their blood flowing, the break gives them time to clear their head, and when it's over, their concentration is fantastic.

When Should I Use Brain Breaks?

You could use brain breaks in the middle of lessons or in-between them. You could take a brain break right before you go into the hallway (let them get their wiggles out before trying to get them to walk quietly down the hallway) or to let out some energy after a particularly quiet activity. The beauty of brain breaks is that they are so quick and easy that you can do them at pretty much any time. I've even used some of them for "filler" activities when we have just 1-2 minutes to kill and can't even start an educational game.

What Brain Breaks Can I Incorporate?

1. One-minute dance party (could do a random song or a choreographed song...my 2nd graders loved doing the Cupid Shuffle!)
2. Do 25 jumping jacks
3. Play one game of Simon Says
4. "Minute-to-Win-it" games (some ideas from Buzzle.com)
5. Jog in place for 60 seconds
6. Jump a pretend rope for 60 seconds
7. Seasonal movement -- "fly like a witch on your broomstick for 1 minute" around Halloween. "Gallop like a reindeer for 1 minute" in December. 
8. "Order" -- quickly order themselves in a line, according to the specification. For instance, maybe you call "Order -- first names, ABC order!" and the students scramble to order themselves. You could do height, last names in ABC order, color-coding, birthdays, etc. You could make it even harder on things like height by asking that they don't speak during the ordering! 
9. Hop on your right foot 25 times, hop on your left foot 25 times, then hop on both feet 25 times
10. Play catch with stress balls or beach balls for 1 minute
11. Play telephone
12. Any number of Dr. Jean, Greg & Steve, or Jack Hartmann fun activity songs
13. "Go Bananas" song (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, please scroll down to the end of this post for two video examples!)
14. Do 1 minute of wall jumps
15. Play Sparkle with a spelling word or word wall word (or just try saying "Word Wall Word" 5 times fast! Phew.)
16. Play a memory game, such as "I went on a trip and I packed ____," and each student around the room has to say everything else that has been packed, plus add a new item to the list. Or a variation: "I went to the zoo and saw a ____," and each student around the room has to add an animal to the list. 
17. Play the alliteration game (start with a random word and every student must say another word that begins with the same sound)
18. Variation of the alliteration game: play the rhyme game!
19. Teach a few words of sign language
20. Lightning round of trivia questions (I use Brain Quest packs: Brain Quest trivia packs )
21. Play a couple rounds of Pictionary or Charades
22. Stretch
23. Do "the wave" a few times
24. "Sentence-by-sentence story:" go around the room and allow each student to add 1 sentence at a time to create a story. (You can play until each student has said one sentence or you can play until the story is finished.)
25. Yoga poses (try Yoga Pretzels , which is a deck of cards with easy yoga poses for kids on them)

...You get the idea.

In case you've never heard of the "Go Bananas" song/dance routine, here it is on YouTube:



Here's another version of it that I just found and really like, too:



If you have other brain break ideas, I'd love to know about them! Please leave a comment with your ideas and I'll gladly add them to my list. :)

What do you think about brain breaks? Do you use them in the classroom? If so, when and how often do you use them?
 





P.S. I just found this great blog dedicated entirely to Brain Breaks! It's called Energizing Brain Breaks, and you can read all their ideas by clicking here. Enjoy. :)