Brain Breaks

Lots of brain break videos with La maestra loca

Brain Bursts - 1 - 5 Seconds

La ola - Students stand, raise their arms, do the 'wave', directed by the teacher (to the left, up, to the right, down, faster, slower)

Find It Fast - Teacher calls out description of something in classroom. Students must move and touch the object. Can do just one, or several depending on time. (Examples: something blue, something made of metal, a book, etc.)

Freeze frame - In the middle of an activity, teacher calls out Freeze Frame. Students freeze as they are, and teacher takes (or pretends to take) a photo.

Drop Clap- Teacher drops a piece of paper, or a feather from high (on a chair perhaps). Students count and clap until it hits the floor.

Knuckle bump - Teacher times how long it takes for each student to give high five, or knuckle one at a time around the room. Try to beat time the next day.

Hand jives - 

Annabelle allen - Choco Choco la la  (can use any 4 syllable word/phrase: guacamole, etc.)

Music and chants - 

Baila con el cuerpo - Teacher calls out a body part (finger, head, foot), plays a short selection of music. Students dance with only that body part.

Kinesthetic - 

"Air" write - With their foot, students write letter, or number on the floor. Or, with their finger, students write a word or draw a simple picture in the air.

Mirror - Pairs of students face each other. One student leads by moving their head, hands, etc. Other student tries to 'mirror' the motions. 

House rock tree and Apple banana orange - Students move to music. Teacher calls out 'house' 'rock' or 'tree' and students move to form the object. Follow the link above for more information.

Rock Paper Scissors  Train - another version

Continuum - Students stand and spread out along a line (diagonal if necessary) indicating how much they love/hate something: broccoli, dancing, taking a trip to Greece (can use after a unit to extend discussion of a topic).

Would you rather? - Teacher puts  2 photos or just a colored paper on the wall. Then asks students would you rather? If you would rather eat broccoli, move the green paper. If you would rather eat ice cream, move to the red paper. (Can expand to ask why?)

Fotos en vivo - Teacher prepares a short series of photographs (could be famous art). Students form groups (2, 3, 4) designated by teacher. When the photo is shown, each group tries to imitate the photo. (see link above).

Breathing and Yoga - 

Three breaths - Teacher has students take 3 deep breaths, while counting slowly as the students breath in for a 5 count and out for a five count.

Games - 

Button Button, or other object - Teacher hides object, gives clues for students to find it. Or one student hides a small object in their hand, while another student (closed their eyes while button was hidden) tried to find it pointing or saying names. 

Counting and Out - In a circle, each student counts in order, one number is ‘out’. So if student says 10 they are out. A student can add 1 or 2 to number to change it up.

Gorila, elefante, jirafa - Students stand in circle with one (or teacher) in the middle. Person in middle calls out name of animal and points at one person in the circle. Immediately the indicated person must do the action for the animal, while the students one each side also do appropriate action. If not fast enough, or if they do wrong action they move to the middle.

Gorila - Students on each side quickly put up their arm (like tree branches) while selected student pretends to swing on the 'branches' by placing hands on the arms.

Elephant - Selected student uses one arm to swing like the elephant's trunk, while person on each side puts a hand up to indicate big ears on each side of selected student's head.

Giraffe - Selected students stretches as tall as possible, while student on each side  squats down to make giraffe look taller. 

Students may choose animals and create actions to vary the game.