Brain Breaks: Benefits of a Little Fun

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October 2012 - Issue 1

Chilhowee, MO - Smiling, laughing, and giggling .  These noises remind us that students are enjoying themselves.  Donating two to three minutes of classroom time to brain breaks let your students have fun and stimulate their brain.    Any brain stimulation in a classroom is a good thing!
     A brain break requires students to cross their mid-line which engages both sides of the brain.  They get up and move every thirty minutes, usually the middle of a period, to keep their brains active.  They can get back to work with more focus and more drive.
     Every minute of class time matters to teachers.  Why should they give over two or three minutes during each hour?  It benefits students, especially those with short attention spans, by breaking up the time.  It’s a mental release. Also, directly following a brain break, students are refocused with an engaged brain.  An engaged brain in a classroom is always a blessing.
     Students love these breaks, even high school students.  Kara Williams, 11th grader at Chilhowee, said, “They’re a lot of fun . . . We do a lot of different ones in our classes.  I like the easy ones, the hard ones, and even the competitive ones.”
     Try it out!  Most of them require no materials or prep-time.  Page 2 has a short list of free-online websites to get a few ideas.  Get your students’ brains going while smiling and laughing.