Kindergarten Crew // Brain Breaks
No matter how old you get, you always will need a break during your work. As we get older we might use things like the Pomodoro Technique to power through a productive block of work time. However, there’s nothing like using a chance to listen to a song or get up and dance or move when you take that 5 minute break. As a lower elementary teacher, and especially in Kindergarten, I love the chance to get my students moving. They already can be wiggly, so this allows them to use that energy productively.
Educational Brain Break
Are my students just learning a new concept I want to reinforce? Then I might use a song or brain break that is linked to the concept. For example, we love the Alpha Groove on GoNoodle because it not only has the alphabet, but we can move our bodies in the shape of the letter and beginning sound. This reaches multiple types of learning with music, movement, auditory and visual cues.
Channels We love for Educational Songs
Mindfulness
Do my students need a chance to calm down and stretch? Then a kid friendly yoga video is just what we need to do. Cosmic Kids Yoga has a wide variety of videos from long stories with yoga to shorter videos. You can also find timers with calm ambient music that you can just stretch to or breathe along with.
Silly Songs
Sometimes we all just need to get the sillies out of our system. There are so many brain breaks that are just for fun. Don’t worry though, you’re not just letting students play. Even a silly brain break like Boom Chicka Boom has opportunities to follow directions, listen for rhyming and hone their gross motor skills.
Channels We love for Silly Songs
Here’s our current GoNoodle Champ who grows each time we get up and move and groove!
Check us out dancing to a song to get the wiggles out!
Brain Breaks are completely customizable depending on your goals. I try to use them with intention in the classroom. No matter what kind of brain break you are using, it gives students a chance to learn something or reinforce a concept, practice their body awareness and listen to music. Music definitely helps me learn (and song lyrics stay in my head so much) so why not use music productively?