Brain Breaks

I am having so much fun sharing "brain breaks" with my preservice teachers!  These intentional activity breaks spaced every 20-30 minutes do wonders for students young and old.  Brain-breaks can help students re-focus, re-energize, and incorporate much needed movement into their days.

This week I shared some of the research about childhood obesity from the CDC as well as information about the limited physical activity in the daily lives of Americans.   I also shared this eye-opening image from a study at the University of Illinois.

Current recommendations from the Institute of Medicine say that children under 6 need to be physically active for 15 minutes every hour, while older children need 60 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity. But those 60 minutes don’t have to occur at once.   This is where classroom brain breaks come in!  

Over the next four weeks, each of my preservice teachers  will research and teach a 5-minute brain-break to a small group.  The variety of activities already is astounding!  Some are energizing, others are relaxing.  Searching the web or Pinterest for brain breaks will produce a plethora of results. Some helpful classroom specific  tips can be found here.  Free, one-minute activities to get kids moving can also be found here.  

I will post pictures and videos of my students in the weeks to come.  In the meantime, try this quick trick called the Foot Circle: Circle one foot around clockwise.  With your finger make a 6 without changing the direction of your foot.   Can't you just feel your brain working??