Selfie Elf Challenge – Get Kids Moving

Selfie Elf Challenge – Get Kids Moving

Are you up for a challenge to get the kids moving?  Download this FREE Selfie Elf Challenge at the end of the post.  See if the children can match the elf poses EXACTLY with their bodies and snap a photo.  Show the picture to the child and see if they notice any differences between their pose and the elf’s pose.

For example, ask the child if they are holding up the correct hand (right or left), do the facial expressions match and do the legs match (right and left)?  Repeat for each elf pose.

This would be a great partner activity – one child snaps the photo and checks for an exact match.  Then switch.

Want to do it as a group?  Snap photos of them all doing the same pose.

Don’t want to use a photo?  Just mimic the elf actions on the page.

Want to make this activity more difficult?  Call out a number and the child have to match that elf.  Call out 2 numbers in a row and the children have to match those two poses.  Call out 3 numbers in a row, the children have to remember the number sequence and match the poses in the correct order.  Continue all the way up to calling out 6 numbers.

Need more Holiday Activities?  Check out the December Bundle!

Sign up to receive our email newsletter to gain access to your FREE Selfie Elf Challenge.  If you already subscribe, just enter your email and you will be redirected to the download in a new tab.

The post Selfie Elf Challenge – Get Kids Moving appeared first on Your Therapy Source.

How to Get Students Ready to Learn After Brain Breaks or Recess

How to Get Students Ready to Learn After Brain Breaks or Recess

Do your students have trouble settling down after brain breaks or recess time?  Maybe you are hesitant to incorporate movement into the school day because you loathe the aftermath of getting the high energy students to return to academic work.  Research indicates that students learn better after movement breaks.  Therapists, teachers, and parents know this but squeezing in brain breaks and recess can be difficult when students have high academic workloads.  To improve student’s behaviors after brain breaks one of the easiest ways is to follow the same brain break routine every time so everyone knows what to expect.  BUT, have you ever considered your own behaviors or actions regarding how your students react following movement breaks?  Our actions, behaviors and emotional states significantly influence the outcomes of children.

Here are suggestions to change your own actions as the adult to help students get ready to learn after brain breaks or recess:

1. Talk in a low, calm voice.  If we start the lesson or activity out with a quiet, low, calm tone of voice children will model our behavior.
2. Minimize your own movement.  Stay in one place while you instruct the class so the students can direct their focus to one location.
3. Minimize your own gestures.  Try not to only stay in one place but also try to start the lesson out minimizing your gestures.  Avoid talking with your hands, pointing and general fidgeting yourself.
4. Change the lighting.  If possible dim the lighting to encourage the students to return to a calm state with their bodies ready to learn.
5. Direct the student’s attention to an area that is organized, clutter-free and has limited visual distractions.  Perhaps have an area in the room that has decreased visual input.  Position yourself in that area so the students can focus their attention directly on you.

Not only are these suggestions suitable for after brain breaks or recess, but they can be applied to anytime you need to have children learning a new skill.

Here are several more suggestions to help get students ready to learn:

Help students who continue to fidget.

Offer students self-assessment checklist to determine if they are ready to learn.

Provide Ready to Work Clip Charts.

Teach deep breathing exercises to help calm the class.

Provide different calming strategies for students.

Offer alternative seating.

Breathing Breaks: This digital download is a collection of 16 deep breathing exercises and 3 tip sheets. Deep breathing exercises can help to decrease stress, reduce anxiety, remain calm, strengthen sustained attention, sharpen the ability to learn and more! This packet includes 16 full page breathing exercises and 3 tips sheets in color or black and white. In addition, the breathing exercises are provided 4 to a page to make smaller cards or booklets.  FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION.

The post How to Get Students Ready to Learn After Brain Breaks or Recess appeared first on Your Therapy Source.

Super Simple Brain Break Tip

Super Simple Brain Break Tip

While many of us know that increased physical activity levels are associated with higher academic scores, it can be hard to implement more exercise time during the school day.

Here is a simple tip –  suggest to the teachers to squeeze in a super quick movement break every hour on the hour no matter what they are doing.

Just take two minutes to drop the pencils, stand up and move around.  It can be as simple as doing the same activity every hour ie. stretch and marching in place or as varied as changing the activity every hour or every day.  You could even provide suggestions to perform the movement breaks sitting down such as these free seated stretch breaks.  With kids in school for about 6 hours that would total up to an additional 12 minutes towards the 60 minutes of physical activity per day that is recommended.  Not to mention shake those wiggles out and get kids ready to work.  I know this can not work in every classroom but for some, it might be another idea to add into the school day.  When you make it part of the regular routine it will become more like a habit and students will understand the expectations of behavior following the quick break.  If you do not like the movement every hour suggestion, read how to establish a brain break routine for more ideas.

Need ideas?  Check out 10 Simple Activities to Encourage Physical Activity,    Mini Movement Breaks (print this out to give to teachers to change the activities up – super easy and the breaks require no equipment), go on a quick Imagination Action Journey, perform activities from Roll Some Fun (print and throw the dice to determine what activities to perform) or get an entire collection of brain breaks for all year long!

The post Super Simple Brain Break Tip appeared first on Your Therapy Source.

Fidget Spinner Workout – Exercise While It Spins!

Right now, fidget spinners are everywhere.  Whether they are banned from your school or not, here is a fun way to add in some overall exercise while your spinner spins! You can download your FREE fidget spinner workout below.  Years ago, I created a fun printable with a different DIY spinning top (you can view that here).  I thought I would update it so children can use a fidget spinner to time their exercises.  The fidget spinner workout would make a great in class brain break to get the body ready to learn again.

How to Do the Fidget Spinner Exercises: Get the free download below and print.  Spin your fidget spinner. Try to do the exercises listed the entire time the fidget is spinning. Put a checkmark in box when completed. Write down some additional exercises that you want to try while the fidget is spinning.

If you need more quick aerobic exercise workout for children check out Movement Flashcards.  This digital download includes 10 aerobic exercises with flash cards templates. Students can get physical activity while reviewing material. The 10 aerobic activities include: run in place, jumping, hopping, squats, lunges, skipping, twists, cross crawls, jumping jacks and marching. Each page includes a picture image of the aerobic exercise along with a blank template to type in 18 flash cards. You choose what to work on for academic material.  FIND OUT MORE.

The post Fidget Spinner Workout – Exercise While It Spins! appeared first on Your Therapy Source.

10 Sensory Quick Fixes to Increase Attention Span

As the end of the school year approaches, the weather gets warmer, the kids get more antsy and attention spans decrease.  Sometimes our bodies need a little extra sensory input to help us maintain an appropriate level of alertness for optimal learning.  Here are some simple, sensory, quick fixes that may help children to increase their attention span throughout the school day:

1. Add movement breaks throughout the school day.  Quick brain breaks can help to increase engagement and attention for the lessons that follow.  Mini Movement Breaks offer 60+ activities that require no equipment to get students moving.
2. Create multisensory lessons that involve different senses – visual, verbal, proprioceptive (heavy work), tactile and vestibular (rotary and linear movement).   Get Up and Learn can help you get started with over 35 activities to incorporate movement with learning.
3. Try flexible seating.  Try standing up, sitting on the floor, lying on their bellies on the floor, rocking chairs, exercise balls, air cushion, etc. to help students stay alert.  Wiggle Worms: A Guide to Alternative Seating can get your started.
4. Switch up lessons between pencil and paper with more diverse lessons.  Try adding in a tactile component.  Sometimes when students can touch and feel something it may increase their level of interest and attention.  Make a game out of the material.  Children love competition.
5. Offer fidgets.  Stress balls, velcro dots under the desk to rub or small manipulatives are nice, quiet fidgets that may help some students focus and attend.
6. Add in gestures when learning material.  For example, while completing letter identification flash cards put your hands on your head when reading a capital letter and hands on your hips when reading a lower case letter.
7. Start singing or add in music.  There are so many songs today to learn new material even for math and science.  Teach the children a song to learn new material or follow a routine.
8. Bright colors or highlight information.  If you need a student to attend to a certain section, paragraph, sentence or word, highlight it or print it on brightly colored paper.
9. Chewing a crunchy snack or gum.  Sometimes chewing on a crunchy snack like pretzels or chewing gum can help students to increase focus and attention span.
10. Drink through a straw.  Ask the students to bring in water bottles with straw lids or provide straws.  The oral motor skills and sucking motion on the straw may help to increase focus.

What is your top tip to increase attention in students?

Brain Breaks Activities Collection – 50% off!: This collection includes the electronic documents below.  You will receive immediate download links following payment.  Regular price for all 15 titles is $59.85.  SALE PRICE of 50% off for this collection of 15 titles via download = $29.90.  The Brain Breaks collection includes:

Mini Movement Breaks

Monster Movement Transition Cards

Roll Some Fun

Imagination Action Journeys

Brain Breaks for School

Brain Breaks for Winter

Brain Breaks for Valentine’s Day

Brain Breaks for Spring

Brain Breaks for Summer

Brain Breaks for Fall

Brain Breaks for Halloween

Brain Breaks for Thanksgiving

Brain Breaks for December

Birthday Party

Ninja Brain Breaks

FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION ON THE BRAIN BREAK COLLECTION FOR 50% OFF.

 

The post 10 Sensory Quick Fixes to Increase Attention Span appeared first on Your Therapy Source.

How To Establish a Brain Break Routine

Do you lead or help teachers institute brain breaks in the classroom?  Try following the same brain break routine every time to help children understand the expectations.  This allows children to give their brains a well deserved break from learning and help them to process new information.  An effective brain break routine may consist of:

Deep breathing.
Brain Break Activities.
Review or introduction of academic material with movement.
Cool down with exercises to improve focus such as yoga.

Begin with deep breathing or turning on “listening ears”.

Participate in the brain break activity.  You could choose a one page brain break – Roll Some Fun or pick 5-10 cards from these seasonal brain breaks or brain break card sets.

Review some academic material for several minutes.  Teachers may want to sneak back in some cognitive practice right after the physical brain break for a few minutes or introduce new material with a kinesthetic approach.

Finish up with a few minutes of cool down and exercises that help to improve focus such as yoga.  Try to finish each brain break session with a calm down poem from the brain breaks collection or the same yoga poses every time to signal to the children that the brain break is over and they need to return to academic work.

The post How To Establish a Brain Break Routine appeared first on Your Therapy Source.

Move Like Me Freebie

This Move Like Me freebie includes 2 sample pages for children to practice motor planning, crossing midline, body awareness, timing, rhythm, coordination and physical activity.  Follow the movement patterns on the children pictured focusing on timing and rhythm of completing the actions.

DOWNLOAD the Move Like Me Freebie.

Get more information about the complete Move Like Me Packet download.  This is a NO PREP activity. Simply print and play or project onto the whiteboard or tablet. There are 4 poses per page ranging from easy to hard. The first 12 are patterns, the next 12 include three actions (one is repeated) and the last 12 are 4 different actions. In addition, there are 3 pages with smaller pictures to include 48 poses per page. There are 7 additional activity ideas and game suggestions to try. Find out more information.

Need more body awareness activities?  Check out these titles:

Simon Says – Move your body to match the exact same body positions as the photographs in the picture cards.

Personal Space Journey –  Collection of activities to teach children about personal space including many body awareness exercises and a social story on personal space.

25+ Bilateral Coordination Exercises – Download of 28 bilateral coordination exercise sheets including QR codes with links to video demonstration of exercises. Also includes hand out explaining bilateral coordination.

The post Move Like Me Freebie appeared first on Your Therapy Source.

5 Ways to Reduce Stress in the Classroom

Classrooms can be stressful for certain students and for all students during certain times.  Over stimulating environments or unrealistic academic expectations are two examples of what can make stress levels start to rise.  Here are 5 suggestions to help create a peaceful classroom:

1.  Reduce visual clutter –  Psychological Science published research indicating that children in highly decorated classrooms were more distracted, spent more time off-task and demonstrated smaller learning gains than when the decorations were removed. The 24 kindergarteners were placed in laboratory classrooms that were heavily decorated or sparsely decorated and taught lessons. The following results were reported: children learned in both classroom types but they learned more when the room was not heavily decorated, children’s accuracy on the test questions was higher in the sparse classroom(55 percent correct) than in the decorated classroom(42 percent correct), and the rate of off-task behavior was higher in the decorated classroom (38.6 percent time spent off-task) than in the sparse classroom (28.4 percent time spent off-task).
2. Reduce noise levels – Sometimes children can be LOUD!  Imagine trying to learn when the noise level is too high.  By establishing reasonable noise levels in the classroom it prevents overstimulation.  Students may need to be taught what appropriate noise levels are acceptable.  Try using a noise meter for a visual cue.
3. Provide a quiet area for all students – establish an area in the classroom where students can go for some quiet time.  Provide noise cancelling headphones or quiet, soft music for children to calm down.  Maybe place a few pillows or comfortable seating in a corner for a calm down space.  Provide visual pictures to help students relax before a test or after a stressful situation.
4. Maintain a routine!  When students know what to expect, stress is reduced.
5. Set realistic expectations.  Make sure students are educated on what your expectations are to maintain a peaceful classroom.  Keep in mind as teachers and therapists, students can only sit still for so long.  Provide movement and brain breaks throughout the day.  Physical activity can help to reduce stress.  Be aware that all students are different and certain students may lack the self regulation skills to remain calm during the school day.  Try teaching students some calming strategies for the classroom.

What is your favorite, most effective tips for reducing stress in the classroom?

Reference: Medical Express. Heavily decorated classrooms disrupt attention and learning in young children. Retrieved from the web at http://ift.tt/2dYHRPe on 5/28/14.

This set of Calm Down Cards includes 30 full size photographs with calming phrases (11″ by 8.5″ page) and smaller size (4″ by 3″ cards). Print the full size cards or the smaller size cards. You could also laminate the smaller cards to place on a key ring to toss in a calm down kit. Children can simply use visual imagery with the photos to help them calm down. Another option is to view the photographs with calming phrases and music as a PowerPoint show on your computer, tablet or phone.  Find out more information.

The post 5 Ways to Reduce Stress in the Classroom appeared first on Your Therapy Source.

Pumpkin Workout and Brain Break

Need a quick brain break in the classroom or burn off some excess energy before homework?  Try this no-prep, pumpkin workout!  Can you complete each exercise for the letters in the word P-U-M-P-K-I-N?

P is for 10 push ups.
U is for 10 up and down squats.
M is for marching in place for 30 seconds.
P is for plank position for 10 seconds.
K is for kick your legs for 30 seconds.
I is for invent an exercise.
N is for ninety seconds of running in place.

DOWNLOAD the Pumpkin Workout.

The Pumpkin Workout is from this Pumpkin Packet that includes 11 no-prep, FUN activities to get children practicing fine motor, gross motor and visual perceptual skills.  This packet is great for brain breaks, indoor recess, classroom party and more!

The Pumpkin Packet download includes the following:

Roll a Pumpkin #1 and #2 – roll a die to create different pumpkin faces
Pumpkin Workout – an acrostic poem for physical activity
Pumpkin Brain Breaks – roll a die and get moving
Pumpkin Ball Challenge – exercise ball activities
Pumpkin Poses – animal yoga poses
Pumpkin Patch – fine motor and visual motor game
Pumpkin Match Up – fine motor, finger strengthening and visual memory game
Design Your Own Pumpkin – visual motor activity
Pumpkin Zentangle Coloring Page
Jack O Lantern Challenge Maze
Pumpkin Maze

FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION.

The post Pumpkin Workout and Brain Break appeared first on Your Therapy Source.

Get Moving and Learning!

I am not sure if you have ever heard of Dr. Jean but she is an amazing early childhood educator who has authored many books, written songs and produced videos.  She is a huge supporter of encouraging movement with learning.  Here are some of my most favorite Dr. Jean videos for combining movement and learning for counting, phonics, letter identification and handwriting. I love her slow, methodical, repetitive movements.

Practice fine motor skills while cheering the alphabet.

Some simple arm strengthening exercises while you practice counting to 100.

Get moving while learning the letter sounds with Phonercise.

How about some karate writing to reinforce which letters start at the top, middle or have a tail? Check out Karate letters.

If you need more ideas or “offline” ideas to encourage movement and learning check out Get Up and Learn ebook at http://www.yourtherapysource.com/getuplearn.html

Brain Breaks and RTI

To celebrate the 2015 ASHA Better Hearing and Speech Month in May, Speech Language Literacy Lab has partnered with 30 professionals from various fields to share tons of free resources and ideas across discipline about School Based Innovation and Response to Intervention (RTI).  See the end of the post for all the great ideas!

School based therapists can easily help with Response to Intervention plans by suggesting brain breaks in the classrooms.  Many students participate in RTI to help with academic skills and behavior management.  An evidence based intervention that can assist with reaching these goals is movement breaks in the classroom.  Research has shown that 5-20 minute movement breaks in the classroom can positively effect the following:

1. cognitive skills including executive function, attention span, memory skills and verbal comprehension
2. academic achievement on test scores
3. attitude changes in motivation and self concept
4. on task behaviors
5. organizational skills
6. motor planning
7. impulse control

In addition, research has also indicated that students can retain information longer when gestures are used to learn the material.

Why not suggest some simple brain breaks to get children ready to learn?  Need ideas – check out Your Therapy Source Brain Breaks at http://yourtherapysource.com/brainbreaks.html.  In a hurry and need some right now?  Download some of these free printables:

10 Simple Activities to Encourage Physical Activity in the Classroom at http://yourtherapysource.com/10simple.html 

Switcheroo Brain Breaks at http://yourtherapysource.com/freeswitcheroobrainbreaks.html

Roll Some Fun Brain Breaks at http://yourtherapysource.com/rollsomefunfree.html

Need to explain to teachers why movement in the classroom is so important?  Download theMovement in the Classroom handout at http://yourtherapysource.com/wwh1free.html

References:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The association between school based physical activity, including physical education, and academic performance. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 2010.

Crawford, Judy. Young students jog, jump and dance to retain what they learn. Retrieved from the Medical Express on the web on 1/25/2014 at http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-01-young-students-retain.html#nwlt

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Here is the information on all of the great posts for the blog hop.

5/1/2015 Kick Off to Better Hearing and Speech Month!

5/2/2015 RTI for the R sound! Badger State Speechy

5/3/2015 Response to Intervention in High School– A Journey from Abject Frustration to Collaboration and Student Success Stephen Charlton Guest blogs on Speech Language Literacy Lab

5/4/2015 Technology and RTI  Building Successful Lives Speech & Language

5/5/2015 Motor Groups and RTI Starfish Therapies

5/6/2015 Orton Gillingham Approach & RTI  Orton Gillingham Online Academy

5/7/2015 Evidenced-based writing that works for RTI & SPED SQWrite

5/8/2015 RTI/MTSS/SBLT…OMG!  Let’s Talk! with Whitneyslp

5/9/2015 RtI, but why?  Attitudes are everything!  Crazy Speech World

5/10/2015 Who Knew RTI Could be So Much Fun? (Artic RTI)    Consonantly Speaking

5/11/2015 Universal benchmarking for language to guide the RTI process in Pre-K and Kindergarten     Speech Language Literacy Lab

5/12/2015 Movement Breaks in the Classroom (Brain Breaks)   Your Therapy Source

5/13/2015 How to Write a Social Story   Blue Mango LLC

5/14/2015 Some Ideas on Objective Language Therapy    Language Fix

5/15/2015 Assistive Technology in the Classroom  OTMommy Needs Her Coffee

5/16/2015 Effective Tiered Early Literacy Instruction for Spanish-Speakers Bilingual Solutions Guest blog on Speech Language Literacy Lab

5/17/2015 Helping with Attention and Focus in the Classroom   The Pocket OT

5/18/2015 Vocabulary Instruction  Smart Speech Therapy, LLC

5/19/2015 An SLP’s Role in RtI: My Story Communication Station: Speech Therapy, PLLC

5/20/2015 Incorporating Motor Skills into Literacy Centers   MissJaimeOT

5/21/2015 The QUAD Profile: A Language Checklist  The Speech Dudes

5/22/2015 Resources on Culturally Relevant Interventions  Tier 1 Educational Coaching and Consulting

5/23/2015 Language Goals Galore: Converting Real Pictures to Coloring Pages  Really Color guest blog on Speech Language Literacy Lab

5/24/2015 Lesson Pix: The Newest Must-Have Resource in your Tx Toolbox Speech Language Literacy Lab

5/25/2015 AAC & core vocabulary instruction Kidz Learn Language

5/26/2015 An RtI Alternative Old School Speech

5/27/2015 Intensive Service Delivery Model for Pre-Schoolers   Speech Sprouts

5/28/2015 RTI Success with Spanish-speakers     Speech is Beautiful

5/30/2015 The Importance of Social Language (pragmatic) Skills guest post on Speech Sprouts

5/31/2015 Sarah Warchol guest posts on Speech Language Literacy Lab

Body Awareness and Spatial Awareness Activity

Need a quick body awareness and spatial relationship brain break that combines estimation with movement and motor planning?  Here is a simple activity that helps students to understand spatial relationships to objects in the classroom.

Start out with each student standing up next to their desk.  Have them guess how many baby steps it will take to walk to the desk in front of them.  Once they have made the estimate, they can count the baby steps it takes.

Now try moving to a target further away with a different movement.  Guess how many jumps it will take to get to the window.  Once the estimate is made, the students can count the jumps it takes them to get to the window.  Return to the starting point.  Now ask the students to double the amount of jumps it took them to get to the window.  The students must now adjust the size of the jumps and how the body moves through space to take double the amount of jumps to the window.

Have the students partner up.  The students can stand at least 10 feet apart.  Estimate how many hops it will take to meet in the middle.  Test you guess and hop to meet in the middle.  Try again with different movements - ie backwards steps, heel to toe walking, lunges, marching etc.  Make sure to remind the students that part of the challenge is meet in the middle but not to touch each other.

 

Title: Personal Space JourneyBy:  Your Therapy Source Inc

Summary: Collection of activities to teach children about personal space
including many body awareness exercises and a social story on personal
space.

Find out more at http://yourtherapysource.com/personalspacejourney.html

Physical Activity, Executive Function and ADHD

Research in Developmental Disabilities published research on 43 children with ADHD between 7-12 years old to determine if there are effects of different types of physical activity on executive functioning.  A 12 week training program included two different groups: experimental group 1 (EG1) included 13 children who participated in ball handling, balance and manual dexterity and experimental group 2 (EG2) included 14 children who participated in sports without a specific focus.  There was also a control group (CG) who received no intervention.  Each participant was evaluated for working memory and motor performance before, immediately after the first training week and one week after the last session.

The results indicated the following:

1.  after the 12-week intervention period, several measures of the EG1 and EG2s significantly improved over time.

2.  between group comparisons demonstrated significant improvements in both EG1 and EG2 compared to the CG in variables assessing working memory performance and motor performance.

The researchers concluded that long-term physical activity has a positive effect on executive functions of children with ADHD, regardless of the specificity of the activity.   The researchers recommended that regular physical activity can be used as a complementary or alternative non-pharmacologic treatment for ADHD.

Reference:  Susanne Ziereis and Petra Jansen.  Effects of physical activity on executive function and motor performance in children with ADHD.  Research in Developmental Disabilities
Volume 38, March 2015, Pages 181–191.

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Photographic Memory Card Game

Study a picture cards of 10 photos for 30 seconds. Turn each card over and write down as many of the 10 items that you can remember.   Find out more at http://yourtherapysource.com/growingplaycards.html

 



Brain Breaks Card Game

Get active, refreshed and ready to work with 50 mini movement breaks that
require no equipment. Most of the movement breaks can be done with one child or a group. It
does not get any easier than this to encourage sensory motor activities in the classroom or home.

Find out more at http://yourtherapysource.com/growingplaycards.html

 

Move Your Body Grow Your Brain

Download your copy of Move Your Body Grow Your Brain at http://yourtherapysource.com/freemovebrain

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Check out all of our Brain Breaks here http://yourtherapysource.com/brainbreaks.html

Brain Breaks for Spring $0.99 Until Tomorrow

Just finished the Brain Breaks for Spring and they are only $0.99 until 3/12/15.  I usually don't put the seasonal brain breaks on sale but due to Spring fever here I figured I would lower it to only $0.99 to help get kids moving!  Get more information at http://www.yourtherapysource.com/brainbreaksspring.html

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Quick Brain Break - Q and A Body Game

Need a quick game to rest and refresh your student's brain?  Try this Q and A Body Game:

Purpose: Promote body awareness, motor skills and listening skills.

Materials: none

Activity: This can be played with one player or a group of children. The adult faces the group. Explain the directions of the game. The adult is going to ask the children to move certain body parts based on questions. The children are not to answer the questions. They should move the body part that is the answer to the question.

Here is an example:
Question: What body part waves hello?
Answer: Children wave hands in air.

Here is a list of several questions and answers or make up your own. See what questions the children can come up with.

Q: What body part makes funny faces?
A: Child moves mouth or tongue

Q: What body part wears socks?
A: Child moves feet.

Q: What body part uses crayons?
A: Child wiggles fingers.

Q: What body part smells skunks?
A: Child moves nose.

Q: What body part climbs ladders?
A: Child moves arms and legs

Now change the game and request actions based on different noises:

Make a clapping sound with your body.
Stomp your feet
Snap fingers
March in place
Smack lips
Slap knees
Tap shoulders quietly

Now have children close their eyes. Make one of the sounds with your body that you practiced together. Can the children guess what body part you are using to make the sound.

Need brain break ideas? Check out all of our Brain Break downloads at http://yourtherapysource.com/brainbreaks.

Or order our Brain Breaks Card Set at http://yourtherapysource.com/growingplaycards.html



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Switcheroo Brain Breaks Freebie

Here is a great freebie to give to teachers to help students get the wiggles out and wake up the brain by squeezing in some physical activity.  You can download the 4 page freebie at http://yourtherapysource.com/freeswitcheroobrainbreaks.html

For more brain break ideas visit http://yourtherapysource.com/brainbreaks.html

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Exercise Rocks!

Make some exercise rocks!  Here the kids thought of some exercises and we wrote them on smooth rocks with metallic pens.  Try these activities:

1.  Scavenger Hunt:  hide the rocks outdoors.  When you find a rock perform 10 of the exercises on the rock and then return it to start.  The person or team with the most rocks/exercises completed is the winner.

2.  Brain Breaks:  After you make the exercise rocks, give them to the teacher to keep in a bowl on the desk.  Need a quick break, grab a rock and get moving.

3.  Make as a Gift:  Do you know someone who is an exercise fanatic?  This would make a cute gift to give them.

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Easy Quick Pick Brain Break for a Group

Here is a super easy brain break for a large group.  Have all the children stand in the middle of the room.   Designate one side of the room to be a certain activity i.e. running in place and the other side of the room to be a different activity i.e. squats.  Explain to the children that you will present them with two options and they need to choose what they like best.

For example:

Have the children choose from pizza or cheeseburgers.  When you say the word pizza point to the running in place side of the room and when you say cheeseburgers points to the squats side of the room.

The child quickly picks what option they like best, moves to that side of the room and begins performing the activity.

Once everyone has picked their favorite, bring everyone back to the middle and present a different choice i.e. gym class or recess, video games or watch television, camping or hotel, bowling or dancing, baseball or football, fruit or vegetables, Sponge Bob or Spiderman....

Want to review academic material?  Ask true/false questions.   Do multiple choice and have activities in each of the four corners of the room.

Mini Movement Breaks: This download is a collection of 60+ quick sensory motor activity cards. The mini movement breaks are quick and require no equipment. The movement breaks can be done indoors. Most of the movement breaks can be done with one child or a group of children. It does not get any easier than this to encourage sensory motor activities in the classroom or home.  Find out more at http://yourtherapysource.com/minimove.html

Happy Birthday Brain Break

Here is a free printable for a quick warm up or classroom movement break when it is a student's birthday.  There are two versions - one you can do in standing and one you can do it sitting.  Download it for free at YourTherapySource.