Physical Activity in the Classroom: Brain Breaks

Hello, everybody!  My name is Erica, and I blog over at Blooming In First.  I am so excited to be a part of this collaborative blog!


So if your students are anything like mine, they are getting a little squirrely being stuck inside with all the cold and snow we've had this winter!  I can't blame them- I want to put on my flip flops and go outside too!  We only have gym class once a week, so it's up to me to make sure they get some physical activity the other 4 days of the week.  I like to use Brain Breaks, or energizers, in my classroom so that my students get up and move during the day.  This is just one way I get my students up and moving.

Why Brain Breaks?  Studies have shown that physical activity increases blood flow, which in turn increases focus and concentration.  This helps them to learn and recall information better.  When the students are doing these activities, they are crossing the mid-line of the body, which engages both sides of the brain.  Plus, they are fun!  Brain Breaks can also involve academic content, so no instructional time is lost!  Brain Breaks can be as short as a minute or as long as 10 minutes.  The times and activities are flexible.  They are great to use after lunch or special area time to get students relaxed and focused, before an assessment, or anytime students have to sit for long periods of time.  They require little prep to use them in your classroom.

There are a few things to remember before you begin using Brain Breaks in your classroom.  Since students are up and moving around, it is super important that you make sure students know your expectations for how to do the Brain Break.

• You need to make sure you have some sort of a signal for students to freeze when it is time to switch activities or if you need to give directions.  Sometimes these are built into the activity, but sometimes they aren't.  Something as simple as a clap, or raising your hand up and saying "give me five!" are simple and easy ways to signal to students that it is time to focus and listen.
• You could also play music, and turn it off when the students need to freeze.
• You may also want to remind students of their physical space, especially if your classroom is small!  Remind students of the amount of space that they have to move around in.
• Provide reminders of the expectations before the Brain Break so that your students know what is expected of them.

Today, I'd like to share a few simple Brain Break activities that you can use in your students.  Most of them require only classroom space to spread out!  I also have some great activities that you can use with your computer!  And though I am sharing a few activities here, there are a ton of ideas on the internet that you can use by simply doing a web search.

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Quick and Easy Brain Breaks 

You don't need anything except space and creativity!

Over, Under, Around, and Through

Not only does this activity get your students up and moving, it helps them learn those important prepositions that some of them struggle with!

Have your students spread out throughout the room or stand behind their desks.  You can also get in a line and walk around the classroom if you have the space.  The teacher calls out a movement that has one of the above prepositions in it; for example, tell the students to "go under the water" or "go through the tunnel".  The students can act out each movement for 20-30 seconds each.

Act It Out!

The students can help you come up with a list of some great action words to use with this activity!

Have the students spread out around the room or stand behind their desks.  The teacher calls out a sentence to the class, and the students act it out for approximately 30 seconds.  For example, the teacher could say "run as if a tiger is chasing you" or "reach up as if you were a monkey swinging from tree to tree."  After 30 seconds, signal for the students to freeze and give them a new sentence to act out.

You can also have the students act out different animals by making their sound and mimicking their body movements.   You can use flashcards with the names of animals written on them, or pictures of animals for younger students.  This will allow one of your students to lead the activity.

I have created a set of flashcards with pictures of different animals and their names for you to use with this game.  You can find it here in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  Oh yeah, it's free!  Click the picture to the right to go to my TPT store.  If you download my freebie, I would love it if you would leave me some sweet feedback or consider following my store!

Another variation is to call out a sport skill that students can act out, such as hitting a ball, swimming, or throwing a football.  This activity can be adapted to help your students practice academic skills by turning the movements into addition or subtraction word problems.

Vocabulary

This activity can be adapted to use with math facts or spelling words as well.  

The students spread out around the room or stand behind their desks.  The students perform a physical activity, such as jumping, jogging in place, or doing jumping jacks.  When the teacher yells out a vocabulary word, the students freeze.  One student needs to use the vocabulary word correctly in a sentence.  Then the students can begin moving again until the teacher yells out another vocabulary word.

Air Writing

This is a great way to practice spelling or sight words with your students!

The students spread out around the room or behind their desks.  They can march or hop in place for about 10-15 seconds.  Then the teacher calls out one of the spelling words or sight words they have been working on.  The students have to air write the word using their finger.  Kindergarten teachers could also have the students write a letter, shape, or number in the air instead.

Simon Says

This classic game can be used as a brain break!  

The teacher gives the students a direction, such as "Simon Says put your finger on your nose" or "Hop on one foot."  The students follow the directions that Simon gives, and freeze whenever the teacher doesn't say "Simon Says."  Whenever a student follows one of the directions that they shouldn't, they have to sit down.  The game continues until one student is left standing, or you get tired of it.

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Brain Breaks Using Technology

While the Brain Breaks I explained above are great to use when you have a few minutes, there are some great technology resources that you can use with your students.  You can use your CD player or MP3 player and allow your students to dance their little hearts out until the song is over.  Songs like the Cha Cha Slide or the Cupid Shuffle are great because the movements are controlled, so the students have to follow the directions the song gives.  This is also great because it forces students to use their listening skills.

There are also several online resources for Brain Breaks.  YouTube or TeacherTube videos are great for Brain Breaks.  You can do a search for popular songs or Brain Breaks.  I found a great playlist of upbeat, kid friendly videos that are perfect for Brain Breaks.

Disclaimer: If you choose to use You Tube videos, it is important that you watch them yourself before showing them to your students to ensure that the content is appropriate for your students.

My friend Ivy personally recommended the Kangaroo Dance video for you. :-)

There are a few great websites that I found that are perfect for increasing physical activity in your classroom.  One we use extensively in my classroom is called Go Noodle.  It has several short videos that are 3-5 minutes long.  They allow the students to practice different academic skills and move at the same time.  When you create an account and log in for the first time, you choose a character.

As you increase the time you've spent on Go Noodle, your character grows as well.  Each time you play the games, they change a bit so that you aren't doing the exact same thing each time.

There are several choices for games on Go Noodle, as well as Zumba Kids activities (I am terrible at those!) and You Tube videos as well.  The activities vary in length.  For example, Freeze It is only a minute long, while Word Jam is 3-5 minutes.

I like that several of the activities incorporate academics.  Mega Math Marathon pauses every few seconds to ask the students a math question.  The teacher inputs whether the answer the students gave is correct or incorrect.  Word Jam introduces new vocabulary, gives the definition, and the students act out the word.  BodySpell allows you to put in custom words to spell, or you can use the lists of words they provide.  And the best part about this website is that it is FREE!  Did I mention that already?

Another great site is called Adventure To Fitness.  This is another free site that you can use with an entire class of students.  It's different than Go Noodle, and they both serve different purposes.  For one, the videos are longer: they are about 30 minutes each.  The videos are also more "mission focused" and have a story to them.  They also teach the students about different things.  For example, in the Egypt video, they talk about mummies.  

Your students help the characters in the videos solve the mission by following along with the characters and doing what they say.  They jump, run, hop, and do other movements throughout the video.  Though these videos are much longer, you could always break up the video into smaller chunks, or use it as wellness/recess time.  There are a few commercials in the video, but they are more like advertisements for Adventure To Fitness than actual ads.

Another hot technology item is QR Codes.  I found this great QR Code Brain Break activity from Miss DeCarbo for FREE.  Each card links to another fun activity through the QR code.  How cool!  Go check it out!

I hope that you will begin using Brain Breaks in your class if you don't already, and that you will quickly see the benefits of giving your students a physical activity break!  Like I said before, these are just a few activities that you can use for Brain Breaks!  There are hundreds of other ideas if you do a Google search, check Pinterest, or look on Teachers Pay Teachers.  I just wanted to give you some free ideas that you can use in your classroom! 

Do you have any great ideas?  Leave a comment and share, please!  I am sure there are others who can benefit from your fantastic idea!

Polar Fun In Kindergarten

Hello everyone! My name is Crystal McGinnis and I am a Kindergarten teacher in a small southern Missouri school district. Kindergarten is incredibly fun and extremely exhausting all at the same time!

 It has been a brutal winter here in Missouri. We have already missed a total of 13 days due to snow and cold temperatures. The weather channel is calling for more snow again tomorrow. I love the occasional snow day, but enough is enough! With the extremely cold temperatures lingering around, I have found it to be the perfect time to teach my Kindergarten students about my favorite polar animals. Penguins were first on my list!

We began our penguin unit by reading several non-fiction books about penguins. We then created these cute paper bag penguins. We stuffed white paper lunch sacks with butcher paper and then added the penguin features. These were a big hit with my kids. Grab your free copy below!

Paper Bag Penguins

  

Get your paper bag penguin freebie here!

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Penguin Writing

Writing in Kindergarten can be a real challenge. My Kindergarten students often struggle with coming up with their own writing topics and then actually following through and putting their ideas on paper. I wanted my kids to write about penguins so we began by organizing our information. After reading several non-fiction penguin books and watching some informative penguin related videos, we sorted the information that we had learned into true and false statements.

 We then used this graphic organizer to draw our favorite penguin facts. We often use drawing as a pre-writing strategy because so many of my kids feel confident with their drawing. We are still working on building our confidence with our writing. It will happen eventually!

After the brainstorming process was complete, we created a penguin themed class book. Each student was in charge of creating one page for the book.

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Penguin Egg Races

After discussing how a father penguin must balance the penguin egg on its feet to keep the egg warm, we had penguin "egg races." The students balanced an egg (ball) on their feet. The students then raced while walking with the egg on their feet (more like smashed between their feet). We attempted to use Easter eggs first. The oval shape was difficult to work with so we switched and used sphere shaped foam balls that are generally used for creating crafts. These worked perfectly.

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Penguin Addition

I found these penguin crackers a local grocery store and added them to my penguin activities. They were perfect for practicing addition. Now that Kindergarten students are expected to add with fluency (according to the Common Core Standards), we practice as much as possible.

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Penguin Blubber

I wanted my kids to learn about animal adaptations and why some animals have blubber. I also wanted to introduce my kids to the scientific method. After searching through multiple websites, I found this blubber experiment. First, I started the experiment by having my kids place their hand in ice water for 10 seconds. After all of my students tested the water, I introduced the "blubber glove." Each student placed his or her hand in the blubber glove. They then placed their hand back in the ice water. They were amazed at how much warmer their hand was with blubber. We then recorded our experiment results on the blubber glove experiment recording sheet.

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Penguin Dance 

Click Here for a Penguin Wiggle Break 

 Kindergarten students must have many "wiggle breaks" throughout the day. I generally search You Tube to find most of my wiggle break material. I use this penguin themed video during my penguin unit. The kids love it!  

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Penguin Cake

Did you know that you could purchase fun themed cakes like this at your local Wal-Mart bakery? Wal-Mart has a book that is devoted to animals. There are numerous animals to choose from.  I am excited to see what other animal cakes are available to go with my other units.

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If you are looking for more penguin and polar bear themed materials, click on the link below. I have some freebies for you. Thanks for reading my post!

Click here for some polar themed FREEBIES!

 Click here to go directly to my TPT store!

Persuasive Writing

Hello! I'm Allison from Stuckey in Second.

I teach second grade in Indiana. I'm so excited to be part of this collaborative blog and today I'm going to share a recent persuasive writing unit that we worked on in my classroom. It was my first time teaching it and it turned out to be a lot of fun for the kids. It was one of those units/lessons that just kind of emerged as we went. I had a "plan" of teaching them how to write persuasively, but it turned out much better and more fun than I had planned!

To start out, I had found this concept of using OREO to teaching opinion/persuasive writing and I found a free graphic organizer already created on Teachers Pay Teachers. (Score!) Thank you Michelle Thom! The organizer works by having students list their opinion first, then three "re"asons, then the opinion again at the end.

This graphic organizer really helped me plan what I wanted to look for (and what I wanted to tune my students into looking for) in the persuasive read alouds that I shared with my students.

We read a few read alouds together that had been suggested to me for good persuasion examples. I'd suggest these as well!

After reading Dear Mrs. LaRue, we worked together to complete an anchor chart that listed all of the ways that Ike persuaded Mrs. LaRue into bringing him home from obedience school. This was a pretty basic activity, recalling events from the story, but we were still working on recognizing persuasion when we read it.

 

After reading I Wanna Iguana, we created a similar anchor chart and wrote down both sides for wanting/not wanting an iguana. (Note that my anchor charts are pretty authentic and the kids do help me create them. They are a work in progress before reading, during reading, and after reading.)

 

Not only did the kids love the books, but they led me into a good idea for their own persuasive writing.

We decided to first try to persuade the teacher to let us have a pet in our classroom as a shared writing. (Yes, I'm the teacher, but I worked with them as a shared writing, so I was more like one of them!) Then, after we pretended the teacher said YES, I had them write persuasive letters on their own that persuaded the rest of their class which kind of pet they should get in their classroom. We had so much fun!!!

Let me lay this out in more of a step by step manner. I'm going to label it in parts, which could be separate days for you, depending on how long you spend on writing in your classroom.

Part 1: Read aloud and discuss I Wanna Iguana. Create an anchor chart that lays out how the character persuaded his mother into adopting the iguana. 



Part 2: Complete OREO planning sheet to persuade the teacher into letting the class have a class pet.  (Again, very authentic, show the kids your thinking, work together and do this as a shared piece, let them know that it's okay to make mistakes, and go back and proofread and edit together! True planning!)

Part 3: Use the OREO planning sheet to assist in writing a letter to the teacher with all of the key points that you want to make.



Part 4: Explain that now that they have persuaded the teacher into letting them have a class pet (she said YES!), now they have to persuade a different audience! They now need to plan how to persuade their classmates into which type of pet they should get for their classroom. Here is where it can get really fun. Some of them had some funny reasons and some really funny ideas for pets!

             

Part 5: Let the students use the planning sheets that they have completed to write letters to persuade their classmates on which pet they should get. Here are some examples from my room. Honestly, we have trouble with writing sometimes and this was a very engaging lesson! The kids took the audience they were writing to so seriously and were so "into" the writing that I was hoping they didn't REALLY think we were going to get any of these class pets. (Komodo Dragon!?!?!)

Part 6: Create final product.

It's been wonderful sharing with all of you today! I hope that this can help you out in your classroom, regardless of the grade level! I always love when I find a lesson that is so much fun to teach. 

If you are more interested in what I do in my own classroom, please visit my store. I have created a lot of literacy and math centers and games for my students. I also have a lot of freebies in my store that may be helpful in your classroom!

Click below to go straight to my TpT Store!

 

Word Walls Across the Grades

Before I get started with all the goodies, let me introduce myself... I am Terri from Terri's Teaching Treasures.

This is my 9th year teaching and I have taught every grade from 1-7 and had a part-time contract in Learning Assistance. I definitely feel at home in a grade 4 or 5 class but there are many perks to each grade I have taught.

Currently, I am teaching a lively group of grade 2/3s at a school close to my home (yay I save on gas!!!). This is my third time teaching at this particular school but this time there are a bunch of new-to-me faces. I love getting to know new coworkers and collaborating with them to make the school environment fun and engaging. They quickly saw that I am a little obsessed with having my classroom look put together (my son calls it a sickness) and that I like to make things look inviting. Everything has to be color coordinated (shhh don't tell anyone but I actually turned down some plastic bins because they didn't match my classroom colors..shhhh). In case you are wondering here are a couple pictures of my overly coordinated classroom. Yup even my water bottle matches my colors :)

Since I have been in many different grades I have had to adapt how I use word walls in my classroom. Since I have pictures (another obsession... I take pictures of EVERYTHING) of both of the word wall formats I use I thought I would write my first blog post here about them.

The first type of word wall here is what I use when I am in a primary classroom. It is your typical "display the alphabet and add high frequency words and student names above the alphabet" type of word wall. I find that in my school district the primary classrooms  tend have more space and therefore more wall space for a word wall. I have not had the same word wall design/colors yet as I always change it to match my theme. This year I have gone with a bold color theme to match my book baskets and my word wall labels had to match so I created simple turquoise and lime green labels. If you are looking for this type of word wall and you like the colors just click here to get them for free!!!

When I was working in intermediate grades, I didn't think it would work having your typical word wall for two reasons. 

1) There is less space and more words students use.

2) Students may feel this is babyish.

 

I am not sure how I thought of this idea but I wanted a way for student to use the proper spelling of words without constantly asking my for it (you can only spell "awesome" so many times for students) and we had a lack of dictionaries for them to use. This is when my word wall was transformed. I have an index card box with index cards labelled with the alphabet. One letter per card. When a student asks for a word to be spelled they have to help me figure it out and it gets written on the appropriate index card. Before students can ask me for a word they must check the box (finding the right card) and only if the word is not on the index card will I write it on it. At the beginning of the year there are a lot of words being written on the cards but later on they have written a lot of the words they frequently use. It is great getting through an entire writing block and not having anyone ask how to spell a word.

 

I think this approach allows students to be more independent writers and it gives them continual practice at putting letters in alphabetical order as the cards are store alphabetically.

 

Here is a bonus tip on how to make writing times more successful. I post weekly writing prompts in my classroom in order to give students thinking time about a writing topic. I know that I have a hard time writing on the spot and have way more ideas if I have time to think about what I am writing about. They have notebooks they can jot down ideas throughout the week and then when it is time to focus on the writing topic they have already done a great deal of their brainstorming!

Well that is it for now. I am super excited to be apart of this wonderful blog and I cannot wait until I get to post again next month!!!

 

Cheers,