Resolution Helpers Day 1 & Giveaway

I am jump-starting the New Year by kicking off my Resolution Helpers Week!
Each day, I will be sharing a classroom-themed resolution and a product that I have found will help keep that resolution the whole year and beyond. Some of these helpers are from my store, some of them are from publishers, and some are actual objects, but all have helped me in the past and will hopefully help start your new year off right in you classroom!

Classroom Resolution #1: 

I will channel my students' wiggles and energy in a positive and engaging way! 

This could also be titled, "I will not go crazy during indoor recess" if you live in a snowy state like I do!

As testing approaches and the weather gets colder, classroom management tends to get harder and harder. Plus, there seems to be stress on everyone to do more and more, oftentimes with less and less breaks.

Enter my #1 bestselling product (and currently #12 all-time TpT bestselling product!): Brain Breaks for the Classroom!!


The idea of these are simple, but will have profound effects on your class, I promise! Each choice (there are 65 of them!) comes with an explanation and a circle with a Brain Break and illustration. All you need to do is cut them out, laminate them, and hot glue them to a popsicle stick. I keep all of mine in a bucket from Target's Dollar Spot and pull them whenever we need a quick break!

Read more about these Brain Breaks HERE. Find them in my TpT Store HERE

I have heard so many exciting ways to mix these up, including:
  • color-coding the sticks with red sticks= energizing Brain Break and green sticks= calming Brain Breaks
  • putting a calming Brain Break on one side and an energizing Brain Break on the other side of the same stick
  • having kids choose them or even assigning a student to be Brain Break Leader-- this can work especially well with a student who could use some leadership practice!
  • mounting them on a poker chip instead of popsicle sticks and keeping them in a basket
  • using them for team-building, transitions, class rewards, partner work, indoor recess
  • .... and more!!!


57 comments

  1. My kids love a quick exercise break!

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  2. We usually do jumping jacks or stretching.

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  3. Thanks for the opportunity to win! These are wonderful!

    What I Have Learned

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  5. My kiddos do a sixty second dance party. I let one person choose a song off my playlist and we jam!

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  6. What a fun idea! Thanks for sharing!

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    1. I'm always looking for new ideas for quick breaks throughout the day. Usually I have the kids come up with ways we can re-energize ourselves. They like stretching, running in place, balancing on one foot, walking on tiptoes, jumping side to side…. Their top two picks: the Hokey Pokey and Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes. We try to keep these to about a minute, which makes them really fast and challenging!

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  7. I have never used brain breaks as a transition, thats a great idea! Thank you for sharing these ideas. I am excited to try them with my group 3rd/4th grade kids. Thank you!

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  9. I like to do yoga poses like tree pose and other exercises that I do when warming up at the gym.

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  10. We have science and SS songs we sing and several of them have motions and movement! It always helps refocus students!
    A Tall Drink of Water

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  11. I use Greg and Steve's Freeze Dance and there is also another movement song where they walk, tip toe, ice skate, run (in place), hop and gallop.

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  12. Thank you for the great ideas......

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  13. 5-4-3-2-1…5 of a certain movement, 4 of another, and so on. They love when "laps around the room" is one of the higher numbers!

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  14. We love to "peel the banana" for our break!

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  15. I like the idea of Brain Breaks!! We will be trying them in the new year!!!

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  16. We love to find kid-friendly dances on YouTube. Their current favorites are the Dinosaur Stomp and Shake Break. Thank you for a great giveaway!

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  17. I would love these for my classroom.

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  18. My favorite brain break is a kid friendly version of the cha cha slide I found on youtube!!! :)

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  19. we usually stretch or something like that.. these would be perfect to help me really get them moving!

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  20. I created some of my own, but these are great.

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  21. I use a website called gonoodle.com. On this site, students do zumba for kids and they love it!

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  22. I have never tried brain breaks but I know my class can use them. Our movement is usually in the form of a scoot game or hallway hunt but these would be quicker and easier to use every day. Thanks!
    Deb
    maxeysjl@defnet.com

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  23. Fabulous idea, even for the homeschooler!

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  24. I try to incorporate fun ways to walk back to their seats. For example, sometimes I will have students think of words that rhyme with cat. Every step they take, they have to think of a new word. I have found this helps to change up the brain breaks while having them practice academic skills.


    Krystyn
    Ms Richards's Musings

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  25. If one of our vocab words has an action, after demonstration, I have kids do it as they move around the room. One of my favorite is lumbering or waddle.

    Greenfrogteacher@gmail.com

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  26. My favorite way to get students moving is having them do a bunch of jumping jacks or quickly write down a top 10 of something on their dry erase boards. I also give them secret ways to walk through the hallway or back to their seats (like a mouse, an egyptian, rock star or a disco dancer).

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  27. some type of whole class movement activity! We love to move:)

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  28. We do some kind of exercise, such as jumping jacks or push ups.
    steph_backus@hotmail.com

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  29. We play a song with actions called "Tony Chestnut"....students and teachers love it!

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  30. I would love to have these. We use "Just Dance" videos on YouTube to get the kids up and moving.

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  31. I totally love them, but I'm a Spanish teacher and will have to translate them when I get them.

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  32. We do a variety of brain breaks including kid dance videos on YouTube.

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  33. My kids love the Gummy Bear Dance on YouTube- they take it very seriously! I love your brain break sticks!

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  34. I have used dance along YouTube videos or a few minutes of exercise.

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  35. Brain Breaks are so great in the classroom, love this product!

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    1. We do some of these already and incorporate Brain Gym exercises as well : )

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  36. We do looooads of brain breaks! We've got that "Cranium" brain breaks thing and my kids want to do them allll day long!!

    Sara
    Miss V's Busy Bees
    ventrellasara@gmail.com

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  37. I started doing the "cha cha slide" from youtube before break and my kids absolutely loved it! I also started playing a game where I would play music and when the music stop I would say "4 presents under a tree." A student has to be a tree and the rest are presents. It works similarly to musical chairs and I would say a different number of presents under the tree every time. They had a blast!

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  38. I love the idea of letting a student be the Brain Break leader. I am going to add this to my classroom jobs! :)

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  39. One thing we do at least once a day is take a stroll through the hallways. The kids love walking to the other end of the building. We work on hallway behaviors too.

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  40. I like to play music during transitions or for short breaks.

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  41. I love to play the little dance youtube videos like "The Sid Shuffle" :)

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  42. I would love the 3rd grade Math book!! What a great resource!!!

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  43. I use brain breaks, but not enough and not these cute ones:)! I would LOVE to win these!! Thanks for the opportunity.
    ~Sara
    sweetsarabowling@gmail.com

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  44. I do 5 min yoga stretches. Been wanting to incorporate brain breaks!!!

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  45. I just started using a version of your brain breaks. I would love to win this!!

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  46. Whole Brain Teaching - lots of Teach Okays during the day.

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  47. I've never done brain breaks with my kiddos, but I like the idea and I think my students will love it!

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