Brain Breaks

Play music
Music stops
Students form groups of three - one is the house with a roof over their head, one is the rock who ducks and covers, and one is the tree with arms stretched above their head

Students throw a ball around the classroom to each other silently
If a student speaks, deliberately tries to catch another student out by not throwing to them properly, or misses a catch, they are out

The teacher chooses a category with lots of possible answers - eg. the zoo, grocery store, theme park, cities, countries, businesses, celebrities, etc
One at a time, students must add an item to the list within 3 seconds
If a student repeats an answer another student has said or can't answer within 3 seconds, they are out

One at a time, students count from 1
Only one student at a time can speak, and no one student can add a consecutive number to the list

The teacher choses a rule and says to the class "I'm going to a desert island and I'm taking an apple"
The students then take turns guessing what the rule is and the teacher says "Yes, you can come", or "No, you can't come" depending on if they student's guess
For example, the rule (in the example of an apple) could be things that start with A, fruits, things that have double letters, etc.
Students keep guessing until the rule is guessed

Label each corner of the classroom in red, blue, green and yellow (or whatever combination of four options you want)
Use a randomiser (such as Wheel of Names) or popsicle sticks with four options
Students choose a corner of the classroom
Spin the wheel, and whatever colour is chosen, the students in that corner are out and sit down
Towards the end of the game, switch it up so that the chosen colour becomes the student/s that stay in and everyone else is out

Students pair up and stand back to back.
When teacher says go, they turn and hold up however many fingers on 1 hand and try to get a match.
For example, player 1 shows 2 fingers and player 2 shows 5
If the pair doesn't match, they sit down and they are out
Keep going until last pair standing or count how many matches each team get within 10 rounds

Can tie this into the unit by using big players in the subject (eg. famous business people, famous people in history, famous chefs, etc)

Choose a starting topic and an end topic and students have to navigate using the hyperlinks from one to the other as quickly as they can.

Students put their head on the desk
Students count to 60 in their head and put their hand up when they think they’re at a minute
Closest wins.

Students move to either side of the classroom based on their preferences to slides

One student is allocated as the detective and leaves the room
All other students close their eyes and the teacher taps one student on the shoulder to be the murderer
The detective re-enters the room and tries to find the murderer
The murderer makes eye contact with students and winks to 'murder them'
The student who is 'murdered' then falls down dramatically (or sits down)
The detective has three guesses to pick the murderer and if they guess incorrectly, the murderer gets away with it

Tell students to find a blank page and draw a circle of any size and location on the page.
Once this is done, tell students to draw another circle of any size and location.
Students then have 2 minutes to turn it into a picture and must continue drawing for 2 full minutes.

Photocopy a colouring page onto A3 paper (or bigger)
Wavy-cut the page into multiple small pieces and get students to colour in each piece each
Tape all the pieces together for a display in the classroom

MINUSCULE revolves around the day-to-day existence of insects which are presented in burlesque situations, with a fair amount of philosophical contemplation thrown in. A cross between a Tex Avery cartoon and a National Geographic documentary !
Great for brain breaks, settling at the start or end of lessons
Click to access

Have students pick the colour team they believe will win and watch them get competitive!