Brain+Breaks





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Brain Dumb - for 1 minute all students stand and say out loud everything they have been learning about. Use SMARTboard timer as visual signal for when the 1 min. us up.


 * [|Minute to Win it Activities]**

1 Practice rolling your head in circles, slowly one way, then slowly the other way. Then practice deep breathing - count in and out slowly for ten breaths.
 * 25 brain breaks to try in class**

2 Choose a piece of energetic music and perform actions for children to mime and copy.

3 Write the key vocabulary from the lesson in the air with one hand. Now try doing the same with your nose. Write the keywords on your partner's back and see if they can work out what you wrote.

4 Trace the number 8 in the air with two hands held together keeping your head still.

5 Practise finger aerobics - sit opposite a partner and both place your hands flat on the desk. Take turns to lift different fingers then try it together and in sequence. Try simple lifts, taps and then stretches.

6 Stand on one leg whilst writing the alphabet in the air.

7 Mime an everyday task around the home or in school and ask your partner to guess what it is. For example, washing the dishes or changing a nappy!

8 Practise making three faces - extremely happy, very sad or really confused. Children stand up whilst you face away from them. Children have to guess which face you will pull by pulling a face themselves. When you turn round, if they pull the same face as you then they score a point.

9 Choose a piece of dramatic classical music then organize the class into small groups telling them which instrument they are going to mime playing. Allow children to 'warm-up' then play the music and conduct the silent orchestra as they play.

10 Blow up some balloons and put inside a silly message. Divide the children into small groups and give each team a balloon. One member of the group is elected to burst the balloon but must do what the message asks!

11 Tape two large pieces of paper to the wall and split the class into two teams. Give each team a colored pen and challenge the children to draw a picture, e.g. a dog driving a bus, a camel surfing. Children take turns to draw for ten seconds at a time. Use a bell to signal when to swap over. Each team tries to guess what the other team has drawn.

12 Ask children to imagine that their hands are their feet then get them to show you how they would eat their lunch, wash their hair, write in their books. Adapt this activity and ask children to imagine their eyes on their knees or their noses on their elbows.

13 Give children a piece of funny text and assign particular words and punctuation marks with a silly sound. For example, a full stop could be a drum, a comma could be a bell, an exclamation mark could be a collective sigh, a question mark might involve everyone standing up and scratching their heads and speech marks could be two claps.

14 With a partner children can tell the class one-line jokes. Children take it in turns to come out to the front of the class with one child asking a question (e.g.' What do you get if you cross a field with a cow?) and the other child repeating the question by saying 'I don't know, what do you get if...' with the rest of the class saying 'Boom, Boom! when the punch line is told (a lawn-mower). Repeat this quickly at a pace so that the momentum is not lost.

15 With one hand pat your head, and with the other circle your tummy. Swap actions or hands, change direction.

16 Put your arms straight down and point your index fingers to the floor. Now close eyes and draw the biggest circle you can with both fingers. Get children to join exactly at the top.

17 Move your right hand to hold your left ear then your left hand to hold your nose. Now swap and repeat again and again.

18 Lift your left knee and touch with your right hand, then right knee to left hand. Progress to elbows and knee, then hands around back to opposite heels.

19 Hold your ears and slowly roll your ear lobes between finger and thumb. Do it nice and slowly and all the way around your ear. How does it feel?

20 With your elbows at shoulder height, practice making big circles, then small circles, forwards and backwards.

21 Use finger sums by showing your partner a number sum with your fingers and then seeing if your partner can get the correct answer.

22 Stand opposite a partner and place your palms against your partner's palms, then make the numbers 1-20 together in the air.

23 Face a friend and draw their outline in the air with two hands together following your hand movements with your eyes only.

24 Practice yawning stretching your mouth as wide as possible and sticking your chin out from side to side.

25 Sitting down on your hands, extend your feet forwards and rotate your feet in opposite directions.

And finally...

Drinking water in lessons has become more commonplace as a way of keeping the brain in tiptop condition. However, it is still the case that certain fluid intakes, such as fizzy drinks and those containing colorings or additives, are causing havoc in the classrooms.

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