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Give ’em a Break!

Posted by: Kelly    Tags:  best practices, brain breaks, compelling instruction, compellinginstruction, Lesson planning, management    Posted date:  August 3, 2017  |  No comment


August 3, 2017

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I’ve heard it said that people can pay attention, typically, one minute for every minute of their age.

My students are 14-18.

I teach on a 90-minute block.

Which means that on average, after about 15 minutes, my students are physically incapable of paying attention.  I teach on a 90-minute block.  90/15 = 6.

6 changes in tempo.  6 breaks in the action.  This was a daunting number to see.  I use a lot of activities in class, I work hard to engage students.  I’ve even considered myself creative from time to time.  But to do 6 changes of gear during one class period?

What if what I’m doing requires more than 15 minutes?

How many different ways can I change up what I’m doing with a topic?  How can I recharge the students and keep our class productive?

With brain breaks.

What IS a brain break?

I’m a child of the 80s, and I love playing Atari games at my neighbor’s house, and later challenging my brother on our Nintendo (he ALWAYS won).  But the one thing that all those systems had in common, and most current video games I’ve seen also have in common, is the reset button.

 

It stops the game, lets the player refresh, get into a better place, and then move on.  The player could use the reset as a chance to take a breath, apply knowledge (you die if you turn right; a coin is hidden in those bricks),  and get a fresh approach a the problem, with a full stock of lives or health points.

Our students need us to hit the reset button.  Their brains need a breath.  They need to approach our classwork full of life.

Inspired by Annabelle Allen and her work with brain breaks, I have compiled a list of some of my favorites.  The first 19 came from Annabelle’s blog, and you can find more complete descriptions there.  The next bunch are from a variety of sources, including several from the Colorado Education Initiative and my own ideas of games, camp experiences, and shamelessly stolen from a number of random presentations by colleagues for which I can no longer remember whom to give the credit.

  1. Copy my dance moves (or other moves not so dance-y)
  2. Rock-Paper-Scissors (when music plays, dance.  When stops, challenge)
  3. Use musical chairs type of partner chat (move during the music, chat when it stops)
  4. Look up a goofy word
  5. Stand up, high 5 someone, sit.
  6. Stand up, touch your head, sit
  7. Stand up, jump a few times, sit
  8. Stand, do 1 rock paper scissors match, sit
  9. Choco-choco, la-la, te-te chant with actions (fist bump, palms, back of hands)
  10. Stand up, switch seats with someone wearing same color shirt as you, sit.
  11. Stand up, move 1 seat (direction), sit.
  12. Stand up, turn to partner and make dumb face, sit.  (1st to laugh loses!)
  13. Take a group selfie (slideshow at end of year, use on website or blog, or for picture talk)
  14. 2 lines, touch body parts with partner
  15. Invent a high 5 with a partner
  16. Drive by compliments (write 1 for each person in group and then extras.  Stick on each other as a drive by)
  17. Handshakes & Introductions
  18. Handshakes & Name favorite ____
  19. Stop and Text/Tweet/Snap (something curricular) on phone (or post-it for a low-tech variation)
  20. Take a lap around the room
  21. Stretch together or individually
  22. Massage pressure point between thumb and pointer finger 30sec and switch hands
  23. Breathing exercises
  24. Cross feet and hands, bend elbows so hands by face.  Breathe deeply holding for 30 sec
  25. Clockwise circle on foot, draw 6 with hand
  26. Be the Mickey Mouse on a watch.  Or mirror the hands on a watch.
  27. Nose/ear touch with opposite hands.  Then switch sides.
  28. Mime hiking, swimming, cycling, paddling (sitting or standing for all)
  29. Put fists together, point 1 thumb and other index finger.  Switch. How fast can you go?
  30. Blink 1 eye while snapping fingers on other hand (or hop on opposite foot instead of snap…or add that)
  31. Forward/backward circles
  32. Win by getting to 21:  high 5 once or twice each turn counting up.
  33. Aw-so-go  Aw= arm horizontal at chest.  SO=arm horizontal at belly.  GO= Arm straight forward.  Stand in a circle & signal another player.  Get it wrong and you’re out.
  34. Toss a ball around circle and answer questions as you get the ball
  35. 4 corners (strongly agree/agree/disagree/strongly disagree) with various statements
  36. Cross crawls (touch raised knee with opposite hand, switch)
  37. Boot scoot (touch hand to opposite heel behind your back)
  38. Mirror drill (mirror your partner. Can limit to just hands or whole body)
  39. Tippy Toe Walk
  40. High Knees Walk
  41. Heel Walk
  42. Foot Rock Paper Scissors (feet together, feet apart, feet crossed)
  43. Chair Roller Coaster:  harness on, climbing turns, drops, finish (lift harness), exit (grab stomach)
  44. Arms straight up, one leg straight in some direction, turn body as horizontal as you can
  45. Act out action verbs in a text
  46. Higher/lower  (ss has back to board, teacher writes number.  Student guesses.  Class indicates higher/lower by jumping or squatting
  47. Make a beat  (clap, snap? Unh, whoop).  See how long it takes to become a recognizable pattern. (Credit:  Sr. Wooly)
  48. Get up, touch 10 chairs not in a row, sit.
  49. Touch 8 elbows from other people.
  50. Touch 6 different colored shirts in the room.
  51. Rainstorm (the bigger the group, the cooler this is!)
  52. Human Tic Tac Toe groups of 8-9
  53. Ninja
  54. Kickboxing moves (jab/cross).  
  55. 360 turn and dunk like you’re an NBA star
  56. Fast feet (Like football players running through tires, but in place)
  57. Alice the Camel song
  58. Captain’s Coming (Consider starting small & adding new actions each week or so to limit vocabulary for novices.  Feel free to leave off/modify any actions you don’t like.  The “mermaid” one described here is one I’d skip, but the description of the game is good.)
  59. Camp Songs, especially those with hand or body motions
  60. Baby Shark song
  61. Children’s songs

Most of these would take less than 5 minutes, many could take only 5-15 seconds, but they can provide that needed mental reset button that students need to stay engaged and work out some physical energy in order to be able to concentrate.  Do these help students acquire language?  If done in the target language frequently enough, they may directly do so.  But the general brain science behind these does mean that they can help students learn better, in general.  So share these with your non-world languages colleagues too!

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About the author
Kelly







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