Does your brain need a break?

Are your students fidgeting during class? Are you tired of losing the attention of the class? 

Instead of getting frustrated and losing valuable teaching time in the classroom give the children a brain break.  A brain break is when we give the brain an opportunity to take a break. 

During this time the children can stand up and get their sillies out! There are many ways to have a brain break.

 You can have the students:

Stand up 

Take a walk outside or inside if the weather is bad

Do jumping jacks

Play Simon says 

Play a game

Do an activity with the lesson 

Sing a song

Recite a poem 

Etc 

There are many different options that you can try with your students. This will save lots of teaching time and it will also help the students better understand the lessons because they will be concentrating more on the lessons at hand. 

Brain breaks can also be known as physical breaks. This is simply because you are giving the children a chance to take a break and do something physical to get let out some energy and to get the sillies out. 

This activity can and should be used for every age student. As a college student I know that during my classes which are 2 hours and 45 minutes long it is very nice to get a 3-5 minute break every once in a while. This makes the time go a little quicker and allows the students to take a few moments to refocus on the lecture. 

Have you used brain breaks? What worked in your classroom?

Let's write quickly!

A quick write is a very useful tool that teachers from first grade to college can use with their students. I think everyone uses quick writes, they just don't know it. 

A quick write is when you take a topic and write everything that you know about the topic in a given amount of time (example: 1st grade: bugs- 3 min). During the time allowed the students are not allowed to erase or reread what they have written.  This allows them to get all their thoughts out before going back through.

These quick writes can be used as a student's brainstorming activity, a way for the teacher to see what the students already know,  an assessment after a lesson to make sure the students all understand and many more possibilities.

I like quick writes because it is an easy way for me to jot down ideas for my blog when my time is limited.  I think it would be a great idea to use in the classroom when the students finish early.

Even though I am a big supporter of quick writes I do believe that they should not be used every day.  This needs to be an occasional tool that is used. This will keep the children interested in the activity. 

New Year!

Happy New Year to you! As 2014 unfolds what are your resolutions for the up coming year?

This is something that I feel should be shared with students. Tell them some of your resolutions (school appropriate of course). After discussing yours have the students write some down for themselves.  Save these and during the last week of school pass them back out and see who is following their resolutions still.

With this new year try to come up with a pact with your students to stop bullying.  A new year can be a great time to talk about bullying.  Talk about what they should do if they see bullying. Explain how the victims feel when they are bullied.  Tell them the consequences of bullying.

Overall with this new year encourage your students to be better people!

I hope you had a safe and happy New Year!  I look forward to writing many new posts this year.