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No Prep Brain Breaks
Sometimes you are just in a jam and did not have anytime to prepare or need something a quick activity as you see your students needing a break. |
1. BOOM:
Students stand in a circle. Choose one student to start with the number one. Students will go around the circle counting to ten (or whatever number you choose) and can say up to three numbers. The person who is next to the person who says ten sits down. Continue playing until one person is left standing.
2. Who will count next?
Students will stand in a circle. The goal is for students to count to 16 without any two people speaking at one time and there is no communication between anyone to say the next number. The numbers must be said in sequence and they cannot just go around the circle saying each other, it needs to be a random order. If any two people speak at once, they must start over. To ensure no non-verbal communication occurs, have everyone close their eyes.
3. 5-4-3-2-1
Choose five movement activities such as hand shakes, jumping jacks, squats or whatever you like. Assign each of the activities a number and you do the activity the same number of times, counting down from five. For example you would do five hand shakes, 4 jumping jacks, 3, squats, 2 high knees, and 1 arm roll.
4. Sports Exercises
Choose any sport that interests you or your audience. Pick a few moves from the sports and show examples. For example ski jumps, you keep your feet together and jump side to side, snowboarding doing a 360 turn, soccer doing foot work or whatever you can think of. Go through each one with the students and run through them all in sequence.
4. Simon Says
Everyone knows how to play this game, and its quite popular in a lot of groups. For those who have never played it, there is Simon who has to get people to do things like wave their hands, put their hands on their shoulder or whatever. Simon has to say "Simon Says" before each action for people to do it. If they do not say "Simon Says" people who do the action are out.
5. 1 -2 -3
Students will be jogging in place, students will change exercise when you clap. Show students a rep for each number of claps. Clap one may be high knees, two claps is arm circles, three clasp is jumping jacks and four claps is double time.
6. Birds on a Wire
Children move freely around the space.
Birds on a wire line up along a line
Birds fly move around space flapping wings
Birds in a nest crouch down with 3 or 4 other birds
Birds roost stand on one leg
Birds flock together fly around the leader
Birds feed munch seed from the ground
Birds on a perch get up high
Birds of a feather back to back with another bird
Retrieved from www.totallyactivekids.com
7. Mr. Men
Children move freely around the space.
Mr. Slow move slowly
Mr. Rush move fast
Mr. Jelly shake your body
Mr. Bounce jump up and down
Mr. Strong flex your muscles
Mr. Tall reach up tall and move around
Mr. Muddle walk erratically
Mr. Small crouch and move
Retrieved from www.totallyactivekids.com
8. Jump, Twist, Twizzle
Students walk around in a large circle, while one person who is the caller is on the outside with their back towards the circle. The caller will call out Jump, Twist, or Twizzle and students perform the action immediately. If the caller sees anyone move or perform the wrong move, they are out. Jump is a side turn, Twist is a 180 degree turn and Twizzle a complete 360 degree turn. It would also be a great game to play in math to review angles.
9. Password
In this game one person is chosen as a guesser and stands facing the class with their back to the board. The teacher then writes a word on the board. The objective is to have the guesser guess the word on the board. Students give one word clues to the guesser and after each clue is given the person at the front has a chance to guess the word. The two big rules are; the students giving clues can only say one word, and they cannot say the word on the board or any part of it. For example if "airplane" was the word they could not say "air" or "plane." As previously stated after each clue is give the guesser may take one guess or pass if they do not have a guess. If they guess correctly then the person who gave them the last clue becomes the guesser. I have played this game many times with kids aged 6-16 and every time it has been really fun. All students are engaged as they try to come up with clues and they are motivated by having a turn as a guesser. I have often played this game just for fun using totally random words, but in my high school classes I also used it as a review game. In that case the words I chose were either terms they needed to know, important people, places or events. As a review game it helped me to see where the class was at based on the clues given and the responses of the guesser. Some words also challenged the students to narrow in on key points as they could only use one word to explain it.
10. Silent Birthday Lineup
This activity requires the group (or class) to work as a team to line up according to birthday (month and day), but with a catch; the group must complete this task in complete silence. To begin the activity, instruct the group that there is only one rule for their task which is from that point onward they will no longer be permitted to talk, and if they do talk, they must begin the activity all over again. You may choose to give a time limit to this activity. Once students have indicated they believe to have the correct order, have everyone say their birthday to confirm. This type of activity is great to get a group of students working together as a team to problem-solve. It would also be an interesting activity to use as a teacher to learn who in the class exhibits leadership qualities by observing who takes charge. Students are allowed to use their creativity as all other modes of communication are available to them, just not talking. If someone chooses to use hand signals, or a paper and pen, that is fine, but they must come up with these alternative forms of communication on their own. Additionally, this is a great way to get students out of their chairs to do some non-academic related thinking, making it a great way to warm up the school day as a morning 'ice breaker' or as a midday 'brain break'. This game can easily be adapted for younger grades by giving more clear instructions (e.g., January starts here, December ends here), or by brainstorming other ways of communicating besides talking before beginning the game. Variations on the game could also include asking student to line up silently according to shoe size, alphabetically according to middle name, or other criteria. The rules for the game can also be changed to suit the group (e.g., only whisper words, only speaking one word, must speak in French only, etc.) Overall, a great activity to encourage movement.
Students stand in a circle. Choose one student to start with the number one. Students will go around the circle counting to ten (or whatever number you choose) and can say up to three numbers. The person who is next to the person who says ten sits down. Continue playing until one person is left standing.
2. Who will count next?
Students will stand in a circle. The goal is for students to count to 16 without any two people speaking at one time and there is no communication between anyone to say the next number. The numbers must be said in sequence and they cannot just go around the circle saying each other, it needs to be a random order. If any two people speak at once, they must start over. To ensure no non-verbal communication occurs, have everyone close their eyes.
3. 5-4-3-2-1
Choose five movement activities such as hand shakes, jumping jacks, squats or whatever you like. Assign each of the activities a number and you do the activity the same number of times, counting down from five. For example you would do five hand shakes, 4 jumping jacks, 3, squats, 2 high knees, and 1 arm roll.
4. Sports Exercises
Choose any sport that interests you or your audience. Pick a few moves from the sports and show examples. For example ski jumps, you keep your feet together and jump side to side, snowboarding doing a 360 turn, soccer doing foot work or whatever you can think of. Go through each one with the students and run through them all in sequence.
4. Simon Says
Everyone knows how to play this game, and its quite popular in a lot of groups. For those who have never played it, there is Simon who has to get people to do things like wave their hands, put their hands on their shoulder or whatever. Simon has to say "Simon Says" before each action for people to do it. If they do not say "Simon Says" people who do the action are out.
5. 1 -2 -3
Students will be jogging in place, students will change exercise when you clap. Show students a rep for each number of claps. Clap one may be high knees, two claps is arm circles, three clasp is jumping jacks and four claps is double time.
6. Birds on a Wire
Children move freely around the space.
Birds on a wire line up along a line
Birds fly move around space flapping wings
Birds in a nest crouch down with 3 or 4 other birds
Birds roost stand on one leg
Birds flock together fly around the leader
Birds feed munch seed from the ground
Birds on a perch get up high
Birds of a feather back to back with another bird
Retrieved from www.totallyactivekids.com
7. Mr. Men
Children move freely around the space.
Mr. Slow move slowly
Mr. Rush move fast
Mr. Jelly shake your body
Mr. Bounce jump up and down
Mr. Strong flex your muscles
Mr. Tall reach up tall and move around
Mr. Muddle walk erratically
Mr. Small crouch and move
Retrieved from www.totallyactivekids.com
8. Jump, Twist, Twizzle
Students walk around in a large circle, while one person who is the caller is on the outside with their back towards the circle. The caller will call out Jump, Twist, or Twizzle and students perform the action immediately. If the caller sees anyone move or perform the wrong move, they are out. Jump is a side turn, Twist is a 180 degree turn and Twizzle a complete 360 degree turn. It would also be a great game to play in math to review angles.
9. Password
In this game one person is chosen as a guesser and stands facing the class with their back to the board. The teacher then writes a word on the board. The objective is to have the guesser guess the word on the board. Students give one word clues to the guesser and after each clue is given the person at the front has a chance to guess the word. The two big rules are; the students giving clues can only say one word, and they cannot say the word on the board or any part of it. For example if "airplane" was the word they could not say "air" or "plane." As previously stated after each clue is give the guesser may take one guess or pass if they do not have a guess. If they guess correctly then the person who gave them the last clue becomes the guesser. I have played this game many times with kids aged 6-16 and every time it has been really fun. All students are engaged as they try to come up with clues and they are motivated by having a turn as a guesser. I have often played this game just for fun using totally random words, but in my high school classes I also used it as a review game. In that case the words I chose were either terms they needed to know, important people, places or events. As a review game it helped me to see where the class was at based on the clues given and the responses of the guesser. Some words also challenged the students to narrow in on key points as they could only use one word to explain it.
10. Silent Birthday Lineup
This activity requires the group (or class) to work as a team to line up according to birthday (month and day), but with a catch; the group must complete this task in complete silence. To begin the activity, instruct the group that there is only one rule for their task which is from that point onward they will no longer be permitted to talk, and if they do talk, they must begin the activity all over again. You may choose to give a time limit to this activity. Once students have indicated they believe to have the correct order, have everyone say their birthday to confirm. This type of activity is great to get a group of students working together as a team to problem-solve. It would also be an interesting activity to use as a teacher to learn who in the class exhibits leadership qualities by observing who takes charge. Students are allowed to use their creativity as all other modes of communication are available to them, just not talking. If someone chooses to use hand signals, or a paper and pen, that is fine, but they must come up with these alternative forms of communication on their own. Additionally, this is a great way to get students out of their chairs to do some non-academic related thinking, making it a great way to warm up the school day as a morning 'ice breaker' or as a midday 'brain break'. This game can easily be adapted for younger grades by giving more clear instructions (e.g., January starts here, December ends here), or by brainstorming other ways of communicating besides talking before beginning the game. Variations on the game could also include asking student to line up silently according to shoe size, alphabetically according to middle name, or other criteria. The rules for the game can also be changed to suit the group (e.g., only whisper words, only speaking one word, must speak in French only, etc.) Overall, a great activity to encourage movement.
