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Elementary Brain Breaks

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Brain breaks are a helpful tool in the classroom management toolbox. They help students to focus, break up tasks, and allow students time to get the “wiggles” out. Taking a few minutes here and there to refocus students is effective in increasing the focus and attention of your students. Elementary brain breaks can be simple but once you start to implement them in the classroom you will wonder how you did without them.

What is a Brain Break?

Brain breaks are usually short (less than 5 minutes) and can incorporate movement. They reset the brain. Think about a time you were working on a mentally demanding task. Sometimes you reach a point where you just can’t do it any longer. Maybe you take a break from the task and go for a walk, grab a cup of coffee, or scroll on your phone for a moment. Brain breaks are similar to that because they allow your brain to take a break from the demanding task so you can focus better when you return to the work.

Brain Break Ideas

Text says "Brain Breaks" image shows kids doing yoga

Free Draw or Free Write

This is an easy one! Set a timer for a few minutes and allow students to free write or free draw.

Simon Says

Play a quick game of Simon Says with your students. You can be Simon or pick a student to be Simon and have fun!

Freeze Dance

Grab some music and your dance moves! Your students will dance when the music plays and have to freeze when the music stops. Any student who is caught dancing after the music has stopped is out.

This or That?

Divide the room into halves and ask students questions with two answers. They will move to the side of the room for their answer choice. For example, the right side of the room is “stay up late” and the left side of the room is “go to bed early.” Which are you?

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Have a rock, paper, scissors tournament in your classroom. Students will partner up and play best out of 3 until you have a champion.

Learn a Dance

Learn to line dance, the Macarena, etc. You could also just put on some oldies and have the kids bust a move! GoNoodle is a great YouTube channel for kid-friendly dance moves.

Timed Exercise

Have your students do jumping jacks, push-ups, sit-ups, etc for a set amount of time. Make it fun!

Yoga

Do some mind-clearing yoga moves. I am a big fan of Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube. They have perfect videos for brain breaks!

Fast Finisher Exercises

I wrote a blog post all about keeping your fast finishers engaged. You can check that post out here. One of the things I talked about in the post was HOTS. HOTS is an acronym for higher-order thinking skills. When I was in the fourth-grade classroom we had HOTS time every Friday afternoon. This was a time that was looked forward to by so many of my students. I would also put these activities out for fast finishers so that students who enjoy them could work on them in their spare time.

The benefits of brain breaks are immense. Elementary brain breaks are beneficial and should be scheduled into daily activities. You will notice that your students are able to focus better on the task at hand when these breaks are scheduled in the lessons. Do you use brain breaks in the classroom? Let me know in the comments!

 

My name is Jen and I’m the face behind Endeavors in Education.

I have a passion for ELA and science. I am even STEM certified. Now I spend my time hanging with my kids, blogging (endeavorsined.com), and creating for my TpT store Endeavors in Education.

I’m so happy you’ve joined me on this journey!

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