Brain breaks for learning: Why they matter and 3 effective ideas
We’ve all been there—you’re trying to get some work or studying done, and you find yourself reading the same sentence over and over, unable to make the information stick. Maybe you try to push through but find it difficult. It’s time to give yourself a brain break.
Brain breaks for learning are short, structured activities that serve as a non-academic pause, and they’re particularly useful in class. Brain breaks can be short activities, taking only three to five minutes of class time, or longer activities, taking ten to fifteen minutes.
It may seem counterintuitive, but taking this time to pause academic activities is actually conducive to learning. The longer we try to focus, the more likely our minds are to wander. Rest is important for our brains to be able to encode new information. When working with adolescents, a good rule of thumb is to limit periods of focus to twenty or thirty minutes. After that, it’s time for a brain break.
Get moving
Movement activities are great brain breaks. It gets students out of their heads and into the physical world. Take a stretch break, or put on some fun music and dance it out!
Movement can also be tied to content, such as in the popular teaching strategy total physical response (TPR). Not only are physical activities a great way to add variety to long lessons, they actually help improve cognitive functions.
Build community
Fostering a positive classroom community is incredibly valuable, and you can take a break from content to set some time for intentional community-building.
Here are a couple low-prep community building activities that students love:
- Would You Rather: Share some silly decision questions with students, like “Would you rather have to eat pizza for every meal or never be able to eat pizza again?” If space allows, you can have students move around the classroom to demonstrate their opinions, e.g. “Stand by the whiteboard if you pick pizza for every meal, stand by the windows if you pick never eating pizza again.”
- All My Neighbors: Students circle up, with one student standing in the center. The student in the center says something that they think they may have in common with their classmates, starting their sentence with, “All my neighbors…” E.g. “All my neighbors take the bus to school.” If the statement applies to a player, they need to find a new spot in the circle, including the person in the center. The person who can’t find a new spot becomes “It” at the center of the circle
These activities are especially effective because they encourage students to find commonalities with their peers.
Teaching a virtual class? Check out some classroom-tested strategies for building community in remote classes.
Practice mindfulness
Mindfulness is helpful whether students are feeling tired—such as early in the morning—or if they’re full of energy—like right after lunch.
Mindfulness is also great because it can take very little time to prepare. There are many videos you can find online that will guide students through a mindfulness activity, but you can also narrate the activity yourself!
Here are a couple mindfulness activities that are effective with students:
- Sensory countdown: Without moving from their seats, students notice four things they can see, three things they can hear, two things they can feel, and one thing they can smell
- Belly breathing: Students breathe slowly and notice their bellies expanding and contracting. It’s especially helpful if students make their inhales and exhales last 4-6 seconds
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