The Power of Brain BreaksKathleen Bird kbirdchin@yahoo.com

One hour and forty minutes is a long time to sit and learn! It is important to give the brain and body a break so hence “Brain Breaks.” First students were taught about Right Brian-Left Brain; Academic verse Creative. They are already good at left brain activities like Chemistry, Math, and History. Brain Breaks open up the channels of creativity and use the “whole brain” so we don’t end up with a “half brain.” (:

Right brain activities express poetry, art, music, dance, etc. Near the middle of the class period, we take a break and I have the students “stand and move and sing”. The body movements are important. They love it! It lets them express themselves. They laugh. They actually are able to sing faster than they can speak because they are using the right side of the brain. Many students have expressed how much they enjoy the Brain Breaks.

You don’t have to have a good voice to teach them to sing! They are great singers and naturally understand and hear tones and pitch. They just love to learn and love whatever you do! As you do something out of your comfort zone you are modeling for them to adventure out of theirs.

I have the song lyrics on a Power Point for the students to follow. I use the “Brain Breaks” as teaching moments to explain the history of each song. Here are some of the songs we have used:

My Hat It Has 3 Corners (with actions) I’m All Made Of Hinges

Hokey Pokey Once There was a Snowman

Do Your Ears Hang Low It’s a Small World After All

B-I-N-G-O My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean

Old McDonald Had a Farm I Love the Mountains, I Love the Rolling Hills

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt Johnny Verbeck

She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain The Wheels on the Bus

This Old Man Came Rolling Home My Gal’s a Corker, She’s a New Yorker

Old Dan Tucker Yankee Doodle Dandy

Jingle Bells (also in Chinese) M is for the Many Things She Gave Me

We also danced the “Cupids Shuffle”(very easy) Danced to “Little Apple” (they all know it)

It must be working! After exams, one of the students posted a funny picture on WeChat of an exhausted man with this comment: “My brain has two parts, the left brain has nothing right, the right brain has nothing left!”