Free Download: 20 Brain Break Activities for Use with Small Groups
Homeschooling - Small Therapy Groups - Scouts - Extra-Curricular Activities
Brain Breaks are short 2-5 minute activities used to help children get the wiggles out during a transition from one activity to another. You might even choose to use one in the middle of a lesson or activity if you feel like the children need a brief break in order to refocus. Set a 2-5 minute timer when beginning a brain break to keep them consistently short and encourage quick active participation.
The other great thing about brain breaks is that while serving their primary purpose of "getting the wiggles out" and helping transition from one activity to the next, they also work on other skills. You'll find brain breaks that use music, balance, gross-motor and physical coordination, teamwork, following directions, imagination and creativity, and self-control. It is a way to build working on important non-academic skills into your schedule without devoting huge amounts of time to them. It is always nice when an activity serves multiple purposes.
These brain breaks have been chosen because they can easily be used with small groups of children in a variety of settings. Many of these will also work with an entire class as well. You need to download the front page and the back page and print them two-sided. The back of the page will give you instructions for each activity.
On the front, there is a symbol on each card. If you see musical notes you will need a music player, or prepare to sing. If you see a box, you will need an item (see list). If you see a hand, you don't need anything at all to do the activity - just willing participants.
Props List:
Keep these supplies handy in a box and you'll have everything you need to do the activities with the box symbol.
- Bean Bags - One per child. (Bean Bag Balance, Penguin Shuffle)
- Paper from a recycling bin. (Snowball Fight)
- Small pillows, or some alternative. (Icebergs!)
- Balloons. (Balloon Sandwich)
- Balls suitable for catching. (Play Catch)
- Straws, Pom-poms, Paper cups or Small boxes (Pom-Pom Race)
Music List:
Grab copies of these songs to use with the musical Brain Breaks. You might buy the mp3, bookmark them on YouTube, burn a Brain Break CD in ITunes, or find another solution that works for you for keeping these songs handy. (Singing will even work in a pinch for a couple of these.)
- Hokey Pokey
- Parade March. Some suggestions include: 76 Trombones, Marines' Hymn, King Cotton March, US Navy March, etc.
- Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
- Freeze Dance
- Macarena
- Finale from William Tell's Overture
- Hi, My Name Is Joe
Looks fabulous, I can see my class finding ways just to have fun with these cards!
ReplyDeleteI love this idea and I am forwarding this email to my daughter who is a special needs teacher. I beat she would sure use these Brain Breakers as well. Thanks for all those days when one thinks, Is the day over yet?
ReplyDeleteI was able to overcome senile dementia via a complete naturopathic process.
ReplyDeleteAbout two years ago, when I was 56, I started feeling foggy and had occasional memory lapses. My wife, Mary, started to notice it, too, but I also have hearing issues so she thought that was the problem. My memory problems worsened very gradually over the years, and we lived with it, compensating as needed. I became less social. After some months thereafter, it got to the point where we couldn’t keep making excuses or ignoring it. I had gone from doing our grocery shopping without a list to going with a list, to having the list but not buying what was on it.
Mary went online to do some research, and it was during this process we had been fortunate enough to come across Dr. Utu Herbal Cure: an African herbalist and witch doctor whose professional works had majored on the eradication of certain viral conditions, especially dementia, ( improving the memory capacity positively), via a traditional, naturopathic process and distinguished diet plan. It was by the administration of this herbal specialist that I had been able to improve my condition for better. So to say, the encounter with the above-mentioned herbal practitioner was the first time we ever heard there was something that possibly can be done to improve my memory functionality.
By the existence of such an encounter, I was able to learn of the new approach by which this herbalist successfully treated dementia conditions, which included a distinguished herbal therapy and lifestyle changes of which I had undergone to a tremendous, positive effect.
It was after the completion of the herbal therapy I had started to experience a great deal of cognitive improvement when it came to rational decision making.
In brief, I was able to go through the dreadful hollows of senile dementia without any further hazardous damage to my health condition, and within a short period. Had it not been for the support of my wife, of whom had encouraged me to undergo the above-mentioned therapy and that of the herbal practitioner of whom now happens to be benefactor - I would have been long exposed to the further perils of this condition and of which had been apt to result to a calamitous end.
I would also wish for the same positiveness upon patients who may happen to be suffering from this debilitating disease, and would warmly ask them to find a confidant like this herbal specialist with whose professional services I was able to attain a divine recovery.
For further information concerning this African traditional cure for Alzheimer's disease; feel free to reach Dr. Utu directly via email: drutuherbalcure@gmail.com
Hi, there. I am Tom Neil and I wish to describe how life had been for my younger brother living with schizophrenia and how he had been permanently able to overcome this debilitating disease via a naturopathic, herbal method.
ReplyDeleteMaicon - my kid brother was twenty years old when he was brought to the emergency room by the campus police of the college from which he had been suspended several months ago. A professor had called and reported that he had walked into his classroom, accused him of taking his tuition money, and declined to leave.
Although he had much academic success as a teenager, his behavior had become increasingly odd during the past year. He quit seeing his friends and no longer seemed to care about his image or public pursuits. He began wearing the same clothes each day and seldom bathed. He lived with several family members but rarely spoke to any of them. When he did talk to them, he said he had found clues that his college was just a front for an organized crime operation. He had been suspended from college because of missing many classes. My sister said that she had often seen him mumbling quietly to himself and at times he seemed to be talking to people who were not there. He would emerge from my room and ask my family to be quiet even when they were not making any noise.
My father and sister told the staff that Maicon's great-grandmother had had a serious illness and had lived for 30 years in a state hospital, which they believed was a mental hospital. Our mother left the family when Maicon was very young. She has been out of touch with us, and they thought she might have been treated for mental health problems.
Maicon agreed to sign himself into the psychiatric unit for treatment. The whole family except I had agreed to have Maicon transferred to a mental asylum. I knew inwardly there was still some plausible means by which my kid brother could overcome this condition. I knew botanical means of treatment will be more favorable than any other type of treatment, and as such, I had taken a keen interest in the research of naturopathic alternative measures suitable for the treatment of schizophrenia. I had pleaded for some little patience from the family in the delay of the transfer, I was looking forward to proving a point to the entire family, of a positive botanical remedy for this condition.
It was during my ceaseless search on the internet I had been fortunate enough to come across Dr. Utu Herbal Cure: an African herbalist and witch doctor whose professional works had majored on the eradication of certain viral conditions, especially schizophrenia, ( improving the memory capacity positively), via a traditional, naturopathic process and distinguished diet plan. It was by the administration of this herbal specialist that my brother had been able to improve his condition for better.
Before the naturopathic remedy - Maicon's story had reflected a common case, in which a high-functioning young adult goes through a major decline in day-to-day skills. Although family and friends may feel this is a loss of the person they knew, the illness can be treated and a good outcome is possible.
My brother Maicon is just like many other patients out there suffering from this disease. Although he was able to overcome this condition via a naturopathic herbal remedy administered by this African herbal physician and saved completely thus, rekindling the lost joy which had been experienced by the family members.
I wish to use this opportunity to reach across to anyone who may happen to be diagnosed with this disastrous condition to spread the hope of an everlasting herbal remedy that is capable of imposing a permanent end to this disease.
For more information concerning this naturopathic herbal remedy, feel free to contact this African herbal practitioner via email:
drutuherbalcure@gmail.com