Teacher Treasure Hunter Spring 2015 | Page 35

Tell Me About… Brain Breaks Brain breaks are exactly what it sounds like: a chance to give your brain a break! Brain breaks allow children the opportunity to get the wiggles out, refocus their attention, and stimulate their brain through movement. They typically only last a few minutes, and then students are redirected back to their lesson. Depending on the class and age level, you may need to do brain breaks every 15-30 minutes. Most of the time, brain breaks are done during transitions, but it ultimately comes down to when you feel that your students require a break and are getting fidgety. Even adults get antsy sitting in long meetings without a break, so how can we expect our students to sit and focus for hours? In my classroom, I use a variety of brain breaks. Sometimes I play a song and students get to sing and dance as they move from one center to another. Other times our brain breaks are when we move from one subject to another, so students get a break, but also realize reading time is over and we are starting math. Since I teach Kindergarten, we do quite a few brain breaks, and sometimes I have to stop in the middle of a lesson and give my students a brain break because I am losing their focus. I keep a ring of brain break cards, so all I have F