Brain Breaks For Year 5

[Kym Wash]

Ihave been very intrigued lately with all of the teachers using the primacy/recency method of lesson planning. Basically, it is a way to plan a lesson using research to get the most out of the prime student learning time.

Sara-Elizabeth shared a lesson plan template last school year that she and Amy Lenord developed with her digital Google Docs plan book using this method. Wendy just shared how this method has been working for her so far this school year. Here is how Wendy breaks down her class time using this lesson plan model:

At the same time, as a new teacher, it was the management tool that helped save my sanity teaching four separate preps. Am I saying that as a new teacher sometimes management has to come before optimal student learning? Yes.

As a fresh teacher effective management leads to teacher sanity, which leads to the teacher returning the next day and year, which leads to the teacher finding better ways to provide optimal student learning. I guess that as a now fifth-year teacher I am past the new teacher phase and have management more under my belt (I like to call that student relationship), and can officially move into an optimal environment for student learning.

Music, dance, jokes, memes etc, all make for a perfect way to break up class. I have actually used many of these activities as brain breaks in the middle of class for years, but without using the fancy lesson planning template.

My question for those of you well versed in primacy/recency lesson planning is where does SSR/FVR free reading fit in? Can I start class with it as input #1? These are just some things to ponder as I snuggle baby boy while watching more Netflix than necessary during middle-of-the-night feedings.

His ideas exploded, and now educators all around the world are not just incorporating movement into education but also specifically breaking up instruction time for primary learners to get up, move around and refocus their minds.

As teachers, we know the research, and we know that brain breaks are an essential part of the classroom routine. But sometimes it gets hard coming up with fun ways to incorporate brain breaks into the classroom day after day after day. Here are some fun and easy ideas from our team that are the perfect solution to this problem.

Choose an age-appropriate song for your class, and see who can make it to the end of this dance-off challenge. Play the music, and have the students dance. When the music stops, students have to freeze. Whoever moves, is out. You can keep playing until there is one person left. Those students who are already out can help you spot students who move when the music is off.

Using each of the suits in the deck of cards, place one in each corner of the classroom. From the remaining deck of cards, remove the aces, and then shuffle. Pull out a random card, and show it to the students.

I learned this one WITH my students but not as a brain break, rather as an attention getter. My school often partners with Live Oak, which offers summer camps and workshops for kids of all ages to become leaders. They instill the values of Kindness, Bravery, and Awareness in their campers. They lead us in team and culture building activities at the beginning of the year and this is how they would bring the 95 kids and adults back together again and get us to a voice level 0 in less than 5 seconds!

Did you know that taking short outdoor brain breaks during the school day can help you learn better? When the school year is almost over and the sun starts shining more, it's easy to dream about summer vacation. So, let's talk about what brain breaks are and why they matter so much at the end of the year.

Brain breaks are a short time when you stop doing schoolwork and do something different, like taking a walk, playing a quick game, or just sitting quietly and thinking about something else. Brain breaks are especially helpful towards the end of the school year when everyone's excited about the nice weather, ready for summer break, or stressed about final exams.

According to research, our brains can't focus for prolonged periods of time. This is especially true the younger a student is. After about 20 minutes of focusing, our brains start to get tired and we can't learn as well (Scientific American). When we're close to the end of the school year, this can be an even bigger problem. But brain breaks can help our brains get ready to focus again.

The nice weather can help with brain breaks, too! Research shows that spending time outside in nature can make you feel happier and think better (Harvard Health Publishing). So, outdoor brain breaks like a short walk or game can give your mind some rest and help it work better at the same time. You can even incorporate curriculum in fun ways.

Brain breaks are also great for helping us deal with stress. At the end of the year, we might feel nervous about exams or sad about saying goodbye to friends for the summer. Group games during brain breaks can help us feel closer to our friends, and quiet thinking time can help us feel calmer (Edutopia).

I find it super-beneficial to incorporate quick mindful, physical, and mental check-ins with my students as a regular part of my classroom routine. These breaks include all types of movement, yoga, and breathing exercises, as well as jokes, quick videos, and more. The activities I use have helped me throughout my lifetime, so I love sharing them with my students. Here are my favorite educational brain breaks that are sure to increase productivity and give your kids a much-needed way to unwind before the next lesson.

This video shows students how to pretend to breathe like some of their favorite animals. The snake breath involves hissing while slithering from side to side, while the whale breath has students pretend to breathe out through a blowhole. Tap into creativity by picking other interesting animals and acting them out through breath.

Walk your kids through the following exercise: Stand or sit with legs and feet together. Bring your palms together in front of your chest. Keep your fingertips touching as you pull your palms apart, forming a ball with your fingers. Press your fingertips together until you feel the muscles in your hands and arms activating. See if you feel your core tighten too. Now close your eyes and as you breathe in, inflate your ball, and as you breathe out, flatten the ball by pushing your palms together. (Repeat these instructions for 60 seconds).

This is a quick and easy challenge to reset the brain. Instruct kids to touch their left ear with their right hand and at the same time touch their nose with their left hand. Then have them switch their hands and touch their right ear with their left hand and their nose with their right hand. Switch back and forth a few times. Then have them close their eyes, take a deep breath, and blow it all out.

Have kids sit quietly with their eyes closed. Ring a chime or gong. Have them listen carefully to the chime, feeling the vibration in their body as the sound reverberates and then slowly fades. Tell them to breathe slowly and deeply as they focus on the sound.

Mindfulness activity cards provide great educational brain breaks. Stash a pack in your desk and pull them out whenever you need them. Each card will give a prompt for kids to try that will let them refocus and recharge. Perfect for moments when you need to bring down the energy in the room.

Have kids stand tall and cross one leg in front of the other while pressing the outsides of their feet together. Now have them cross their arms over each other at the wrists. Clasp their hands and curl their arms into their chest. Take a few breaths, and uncross and cross the opposite way for a few more breaths.

This is a good break when you sense a weariness in the air. Have kids rub their hands together vigorously until they warm up. Tell them to close their eyes and place their hands over their eyes. Instruct them to breathe deeply as they clear their minds and refocus.

Have kids start on all fours and then give them the following instructions to complete the cat and cow yoga poses: Place your shoulders over your wrists and hips over your knees. Arch your back to the sky and tuck in the tailbone (cat pose). Let your head fall between your arms. From there, sink the belly towards the ground, and lift the chest and chin (cow pose). Gently alternate between the two poses while breathing deeply.

Walk your kids through this winged movement: Sit cross-legged on the floor. Stretch your arms down by your sides with your palms facing inward toward your body. Slowly raise both arms while rotating hands forward. When your arms reach shoulder level, your hands should be facing forward. Continue raising arms, slowly rotating palms so that by the time hands are overhead, palms are facing each other. Slowly lower arms, repeating the rotation (palms facing each other, palms facing forward, palms facing sides) until they are once again resting at your sides. As you raise and lower your arms, stretch them as long as you can, as if you are scraping the sides of the room and the ceiling. Repeat slowly three times, breathing deeply.

Kids are very social and curious beings. Most of them love to chat with one another at any chance they can get. Lining up to leave the room for anything is the perfect chance for them to mix and mingle. Make a more productive use of this time by having students line up in special ways. Some fun ideas include lining up in alphabetical order by name, by birth date, or by height order.

Sometimes kids just need to bounce their energy out. Have them pretend they are bouncing on a mini-trampoline (this will keep their movement on a vertical plane instead of all over the room), and give them a couple of minutes to let loose!

Have kids visualize they are standing in front of an enormous cauldron. Inside the cauldron is an ooey-gooey pot of caramel. Take hold of a large stirrer and plunge it to the bottom of the pot. Slowly begin to stir in a clockwise direction. Have them use their whole body to help get a full range of motion in their wrists and shoulders. Instruct them to throw their hips into the action. After a minute or two, reverse the direction.

3a8082e126