Sometimes school work can get overwhelming and stressful for students, and one of the best ways to boost their mood, focus, and productivity is to engage them in brain breaks. These brain break games for the classroom will get your students up and moving, allowing them to relax and expend extra energy. Scheduling regular breaks throughout the day allows a child’s brain to rest before fatigue and frustration set in. Check out our favourite brain break games below!
What Are Brain Breaks?
Brain breaks are short, intentional breaks from the regular learning plan at school that allow kids to rest, recharge, and refocus. Brain breaks are beneficial for children’s mental, emotional, and physical well-being. They give them the chance to take a mental breather and do something with their classmates that they enjoy. Kids love games, and games allow kids to get moving and have fun. They can also teach kids skills such as collaboration, communication, socialization, and teamwork.
8 Benefits of Brain Breaks for Kids
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- Improved focus and attention- brain breaks help prevent mental fatigue and maintain focus and attention during learning activities.
- Memory and learning retention- breaks allow the brain to consolidate information and improve memory retention. They give the brain time to process and encode new information.
- Less stress- they help alleviate stress and anxiety by providing a moment of relaxation and allowing kids to step away from the pressures of academic tasks.
- Boosted creativity- short breaks can stimulate creative thinking and problem-solving abilities. Kids can explore their imagination and come up with innovative ideas.
- Increased productivity- kids are more likely to work efficiently when they know they have designated break times to look forward to.
- Better mood and behaviour- when kids have time to relax and have fun, they are more likely to be cooperative and positive during learning hours.
- Social development- brain breaks that involve group activities or games can promote social interaction and teamwork. This can help build important social skills and foster a sense of friendship.
- Happiness and well-being- by balancing learning with moments of relaxation and fun, children are more likely to enjoy the learning process and have a positive attitude towards school.
10 Brain Break Games for the Classroom
1. Freeze Dance
Turn on a fun playlist and have your class dance around the room. When you turn the music off, kids have to freeze in whatever dance move they’re doing. Anyone who moves in the silence is out. Continue until there’s a winner.
2. Keep It Up
With “keep it up”, kids have to work together to keep a beach ball from hitting the ground. They hit the ball into the air to pass it to one another. Students can use their feet, hands, head, chest, knees, and elbows to keep the ball up. Add two or three balls to make it even more fun and use a stopwatch to time them!
3. Broken Telephone
Have the kids stand up and create a circle around the room. Choose a kid to start the game (or you can), whispering a phrase into the ear of the classmate beside them. Then have that child repeat the phrase to the child who’s next to them. This continues around the circle until the last child, who will repeat the phrase out loud. It’s sure to prompt some laughter as the kids see how much the message has changed.
4. Plates
Give each student a paper plate. Have them walk around the room balancing the plates on their heads. If a student drops their plate, they must freeze until another student picks it up and places it back on the student’s head (while keeping his or her own plate in place).
5. Would You Rather
Cut the classroom into two halves and designate them as the answer spaces. You’ll have to come up with a bunch of “would you rather” questions for kids, such as, “would you rather have a magic carpet that flies or have your own robot?” or “would you rather eat a dead bug or a live worm?” Call out the options and your students can choose what side of the room they go to.
6. Mirror, Mirror
Have students stand in front of a partner and assign one person to be the mirror. Their job is to do everything their partner does. After a few minutes yell “switch” so the other person gets the chance to be the mirror as well.
7. Simon Says
Simon Says is a classic game that kids always love! Designate one student as Simon, who will face the class and give the rest of the kids commands to follow, such as “Simon says touch your toes”, or “Simon says give someone else a high five”. If Simon gives a command that doesn’t begin with “Simon says”, such as “clap your hands” anyone who moves is out!
8. Mingle, Mingle, Group
Have students wander around the classroom saying “mingle, mingle, mingle” in soft voices, until the teacher says “groups of 3” (the teacher can call out any number for the group size), at which point the students must get themselves into groups with the correct number of people. Students who are left over do three jumping jacks before the next round starts.
9. Fitness Bingo
Print out these bingo grids and cards for your class. Give each student a grid then pull out a fitness card from the pile. Students do the activity on the card (shuffle on the spot, star jumps, squats, etc.), and if they have the activity on their grid, they mark off the square that contains that activity. The first student to cover three squares vertically or horizontally wins!
10. Line Up
Have your students create a line, but give them parameters for the line (oldest to youngest, alphabetical by name, or shortest to tallest). This is a great game for the beginning of the school year when students are getting to know each other.
We hope these brain break games give you and your students a nice mental breather to help you get back to your day productively.
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