Brain breaks and Energisers

‘Simon says’ Or make it ‘Ms Stone’ says, whatever you like.Easy one to stand at desk and complete activities. No one goes out but choose a ‘winner’ to become the new leader. Works great with examples like 10 Squats, 30 second plank, Push-ups

Brain Break – allow students to have a brain break and run around the basketball court.

Focus activities

Imaginary basketball - Mime holding it - hold in front of tummy, right hand on top and then rotate hands slowly to keep the shape and size to left hand on top but must keep the ball size the same. Repeat 5 times.

‘Shoot the bunny’ – left hand make rabbit ears, other 3 fingers tucked down,Right hand makes a gun with 3 other fingers tucked in. (see image)Switch hands, so now right hand is bunny and left hand is gun, so bunny ‘escapes’ – keep repeating with precision until they get it. (Connects left and right hemispheres of the brain.

Partner activity

One person is A the other B.Out loud - A counts 1, B counts 2 and A counts 3.Next time around, replace 1 with a clap, B say out loud 2, A - 3Then replace word 2 with a click of the fingers Third time and 3 is replaced with a high five. No longer count out loud and should just have the movements but need to concentrate in the pair to do the correct action.Then switch over A becomes B.

Neck stretches for before or during a class- Total time = 6 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRNtLrMf-1A

Cross crawlingStand up – lift left leg and touch with right elbow.Alternate with then lifting right leg to touch with left elbow. Repeat 10 times.If you can’t reach your elbow with your knee, work within your range, but the brain connection happens with the touch.

Remote learning activities: (All three activities below can be changed to anything such as squats, push-ups, sit-ups, tuck jumps)

1. Bottle Flip Chaoshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZd8oJv6LlM&feature=youtu.be

2. Stacks & Jacks 3 Stack Challengehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvk7RMEhN8Q

3. Pillow flipperhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOdkm4lCRJU

Thinking movement activity – 4 corners debate

Put your debatable Concept question on the board and have each corner of the classroom labelled -Agree, somewhat agree, disagree and somewhat disagree.Student or teacher moderates from centre of the classroom. Students move to the corner they believe best represents their view of the concept.Each corner discusses views and then one person presents that view and the debate begins. They can move corners if convinced by an argument.Make them stand, no chair time!

Bean Bag Game

Get your students into two groups of approx. 10 students and get them to make a circle. Each student should be given a number from 1 to the number of people in the circle. Make sure the students mix where they stand in the circle.

Students must pass a bean bag from number one to number two to number three and so on. Once you get to the last student they then pass the bean bag to number one.

Once the students get use to the throwing sequence then you can add in more bean bags and eventually have the same number of bean bags in the game as the number of students playing.

5

10

8

7 911

4 36

2

1

Heads or Tails

Get students to stand up behind their desks. As the teacher you will have a coin that you will toss. Students must select either heads by putting their hands behind their head or tails by placing their hands behind their back. Flip the coin and get a result. The students who guessed correctly stay in the game, the students who guessed incorrectly are eliminated and must do a ‘punishment’ before sitting down e.g. 20 squats or 10 push ups or 20 star jumps. This game will go quick so you can run this game 2-3 times.

1 2 3

This games looks at students using their left and right side of the brain as well as their body. Students must be organised into pairs. Phase One: The first phase of this game is to get the pairs facing each other, making good eye contact and alternately counting to three.So, A says ‘one’, B says ‘two’, A says ‘three’. B says ‘one’, A says ‘two’, B says ‘three’ and so on and so forth. Allow them time to establish a rhythm. Phase Two: Announce that you are now going to make a small change. The pairs now no longer say ‘one’ but replace it with a clap of the hands. ‘Two’ and ‘Three’ are still vocalised. Phase Three: The pairs no longer say ‘two’ but instead replace it with a raspberry sound. The rhythm should now look like this: Clap, raspberry, ‘three’. Phase Four: The pairs now longer speak at all, with ‘three’ now being replaced with a stamp of the foot. So the jig should now look like this: Clap, Raspberry, Stamp.

Human knot

Class will need to be split into 2-4 teams.Students will need to step away from their desks and will need some space to move.

You may wish to move desks to the side of the room.Instruct your teams to stand in a circle, facing each other.Every member of the team must put both hands into the circle, and grab someone else’s hands. There are two rules with this… 1. You cannot grab the hand of the person next to you and 2. each hand must be holding a different person’s hand.

When instructed, teams will attempt to untangle themselves without letting go of their teammate’s hands.First team to completely untangle, win!

Depending on who’s hand each member grabs, a team may end up with more than one circle and this is fine, as long as completely untangled. Team members may also be facing different directions which is also fine.

Paper Holding

Form into teams of three to five people.

By way of demonstration, ask two people from a team to volunteer and hold one sheet of paper between the palms of one of their hands.

Each team is challenged to assist two of their group members to hold as many pieces of paper off the ground by using only their bodies.

To guide fair play, announce that:– Only one sheet of paper can be affixed between any two body parts;– No adhesives can be used to hold paper to one’s body;– Folding the paper is not permitted;– Each sheet of paper must be in contact with both team members; and– No two sheets of paper can be touching.

Distribute sheets of paper to each team, and announce “GO.”

Allow up to 5 minutes and survey the results.

(https://www.playmeo.com/activities/?subscription=free)

Leaning Tower of Feetza

Form small teams of about 6 to 8 people.

Explain that each group is to build the tallest free-standing structure they can using only their shoes.

Everyone has exactly three minutes to achieve the task.

The tallest structure wins.

(https://www.playmeo.com/activities/?subscription=free)

Ninja

Ninja, also known as Ultimate Ninja, is a common playground game, where the objective is to take turns swiping at the opponent's hands to eliminate themThe rules of ninja are simple, and have only a few pivotal rules for play. In a game, players will stand in a circle, and place their hands together, the player leading the game will say "Dong Chi Qua!". There, the countdown begins, and each player must strike a pose. Players take turns attacking their opponents by swiping at their arms and hands and must freeze in place once their attack is finished. Defending players may dodge if they think they will be hit, and must also freeze once the attack is finished. If a player is hit, the hand or arm that is hit is out but the other hand or arm is still in. If a player misses, they must stop moving immediately. When both hands have been hit, the player is out and must stand back until there is one player left.

The only player left is the winner. However, there have been variations to how children play the game, some exercise optional rules such as, the area that is hit, timed attacks or however the players want to change the game. When the attacker is attacking, at least one foot must stay on the ground at all times.

Jive memoryStudents will start in a circle. One person must select a “move” – the next person must do their move + their own. This will continue around the circle. To get more kids participating you may have two groups of this activity running or get each student to perform the move once a new one is introduced.

Categories

Players need to name objects within certain categories starting with a particular letter of the alphabet. You can go around the circle and see who can name something from within that category – if you repeat an answer you must sit down.

Category ideas:- Fruit- Car brands- Sport labels- Types of plants- Modes of transport

Rock Paper Scissors line

Rock paper scissors (also known as scissors rock paper, paper rock scissors and scissors paper stone) is a hand game usually played between two people, in which each player simultaneously forms one of three shapes with an outstretched hand. These shapes are "rock" (a closed fist), "paper" (a flat hand), and "scissors" (a fist with the index finger and middle finger extended, forming a V). "Scissors" is identical to the two-fingered V sign (also indicating "victory" or "peace") except that it is pointed horizontally instead of being held upright in the air.

Play this game in a line – move up if you win move down if you lose. Give students two minutes to quickly move through to see who can get to the top.

Silent Ball/Balloon

Students to find a space somewhere in the room. They must pass a ball around the room (can’t throw back to the person who passed it to you – until near the end of the game).

1. You must be silent the entire game… if you speak, laugh, grunt, squeal… you sit down2. If you do a bad throw you sit down3. If you drop the ball you sit down.4. Play till the end (I like to mix it up and get them to throw with their opposite hand, jumping,

standing on one leg, with one eye closed, hot potato)5. Can also be fun to allow the eliminated player to come up with the restriction above.

Word Tennis2 playersHave a topic per round. E.g. Sport, school, cars, holidaysStudents take it in turns saying a word that is associated with that theme Student is out if…. 1. They repeat an answer2. Take longer than 3 seconds

Winner stays on, new opposition. Winner serves (says the first word)

Tickle murder.Have one student be the detective. One student will be asked to be the murderer. (have detective leave the room while they are selected.)Students must walk around the room while the detective watches. When students meet they must shake hands. The murderer will hand tickle others signalling they must die. Emphasise to students not to die straight away as that gives the murder away)

If tickled they must die in an elaborate fashion.Detective gets 3 guesses.

The atom game

There are many variations of this game. One way to carry it out is to call out different ways for students to move around the room (or outdoor space, gymnasium, etc.). Tell them to move around like cats, dinosaurs, space aliens, very fancy people, very old people … You get the idea! Then, call out a number with the word ‘atom’ (e.g., “Atom three!”). Students must then quickly join up into groups of three. Think of it like musical chairs — any stray ‘atoms’ are out of the game until there are two players left. I’ve used this game with kids from kindergarten up to eighth grade, and every grade level of students was able to have fun with it and get some energy!

Would you rather …

Have the class convene in a central area of the room and pose a few thought-provoking ‘would you rather’-style questions. Would you rather never have chocolate again or never have ice cream again? Would you rather have the superpower of flight or invisibility? The options are endless and super fun!

Students who pick option A would move to one side of the room and those who choose option B to the other. Then, everyone would meet back in the middle for the next round. If you want to carry over this brain break activity to your next lesson, keep track of the numbers you get from the results and have students chart the outcomes!

Timed Chatter

Allow the students to do what they are desperate to do. Set a 3-minute timer and allow the students

to get up and talk to their friends.

Stop, Go, Yes, No, High, Low

Before starting the game explain to students that all they need to do is follow really easy instructions to stay in the game, but if they get it wrong they go back their seat and resume learning.

1. Students are instructed to walk in a circular fashion when they hear “Go” and they must freeze when they hear “Stop”. (They’ll do this one easily)

2. Add that they must nod when they hear “Yes” as they walk and shake their head when they hear “No”

3. Now add that they must walk on tip-toes when they hear “High” and they must walk crouching down when they hear “Low” ............But NOW, when you say “stop” you really mean go and when you say “Go” you really mean stop. And when you say “High” you really mean Low and when you say “Low” you really mean high, but you still mean “yes” and you still mean “No”

4. Play with any combination of opposites and actuals until you get down to the last student.

Paper Passage

Students form small teams (6-8). They must pass a piece of paper from person to person around the circle using only the body part you decide. They need to get the paper back to the first student before the other teams.

E.g. 1) Students must face each other and pass the paper touching only their palm with their fingers facing up to the ceiling.

E.g. 2) Students need to pass the paper using only the tip of their little finger.

E.g. 3) Students need to sit down and pass the paper using only the top of their knee cap.

Hoop Dreams

Students form small teams (6-8). Teams form a circle and hold hands so the circle is unbroken. With the hoop resting on the link of two peoples hands they must pass their hoop over person to person around the circle without breaking the connection of hands at any time. They need to get the hoop back to the first student before the other teams. To build the difficulty you can make the teams pass two hoops and have each hoop within the circle travelling in a different direction. Teams have to start again if the circle if connected hands becomes broken at any time.

Toe Tapping:

In pairs students will face each other.Teacher will give a sequence of steps: e.g.: Left foot tap 3 times Right foot tap 2 times Left foot tap 1 time

Students will then perform the sequence; repetitive and quickly by tapping their feet together.

Change the sequence as needed.

Recommended time: 2-4mins

Box Breathing:

Students will stand up behind chairs.

Place one hand on clavicle and other on lower diaphragm (tummy)

Students will then take: 4 secs to breath in 4 secs hold breath 4 secs to breath out 4 secs hold breath Breaths are NOT forceful, regular type of breathing.

Do this for 4 min in total.

JustDance:

Using projector and laptop

Get students to stand up push chairs in and follow along within the space available. (YouTube Clip)

Play lists are below:https://www.youtube.com/user/justdancegame/playlists

Time is song dependent.

“Buzz” Maths:

Students will count as a class starting with one student and working around the room (1, 2, etc.)

Teacher picks a number between 2-9

You can do add, subtract or multiple for the progression of the sequence.

Any multiple of that number gets replace with the word BUZZ instead of the number.

e.g.: If the number is 3

Student 1, will say 1Student 2, will say 2Student 3, will say BuzzStudent 4, will say 4Student 5, will say 5Student 6, will say Buzz

Bit Breaker: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bit-breaker/id519322513

This is a great interactive game that students at Years 5-9 can play on their IPAD.