Brain Breaks!

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I teach my students two periods in a row everyday for the same class. I love that I get that much time with them everyday - we get to really delve into the material and have plenty of time for practice and review. However, when you're 15-20 years old sometimes an hour and a half of studying English can seem like a never-ending eternity long time.

CC: http://www.flickr.com/photos/baileysjunk/

To mix it up, I like to incorporate brain breaks. You never know when your class will need them and sometimes it can be hard to come up with a fun, but academically appropriate game off the top of your head. So I created this matrix based off of a cute elementary idea on Pinterest.

I can imagine that we might have a brain break a couple times a week, which means that by the end of the semester we've done each activity only a few times (if the die is fair!). Many of the activities involve some sort of physical movement too - which may feel hokey to some of your students, but it all depends on how you present it! The activities (except for "Deep, Dark Box") require little to no prep work, just basic classroom supplies. Each activity is fully described in the pages following the matrix.

You're welcome to use/modify this for your classroom. Here is a link to the Microsoft Word version (just click File:Download), and here is a link to a PDF version. You may need to edit and adjust some ideas if you don't teach the same clientele ("Where in the World?" may not be as challenging or fun if you don't have a classroom full of students who are new to the US and from all over the world). Enjoy and good luck!

Front Yard

Pin It First of all I'd like to say my mom is a superstar... amazing... incredible.

She has come up to visit us (3 hour trip both ways!) the last two weekends to help us with our house. And by help, I mean really help and tell us what to do - we've never done this after all! But fist she prepared us an awesome and adorable picnic lunch.

Back to the yard... Yesterday she weed-wacked everything like a pro. This morning I woke up to her doing our very dirty dishes (thanks mama!). Then today, she masterminded, and did more than a fair share of the labor for this amazing feat (plus the backyard... which is to come later).

Yep, she is amazing... and this doesn't even show it all! And my amazing husband is a pretty great hard worker too, I think he took about 100 yards to the recycling center to haul all the yard waste... oh yea and he carried all the granite landscape rock! But can you see that stone edging... all me baby! (Even if that is pretty much all I did!)

Here is what we did, mixed in with several trips to the recycling center and the store:
1) Trimmed bushes
2) Raked around bushes
3) Pruned (lopped) off the unwanted bushes
4) Laid PREEN 25 year fabric over the ground to prevent weeds
5) Stapled in the PREEN
6) Relocated rocks to create a natural edger
7) Transplanted and watered some flowers (not in the picture) into the PREEN
8) Put 43 bags of pink granite over PREEN

And tomorrow we will go buy more... because we still aren't done, but the store was sold out of our color of stone! Steps 1-2 were last weekend and the rest we did this weekend.
I've got a hardworking husband and mom... maybe it has something to do with them sharing the same birthday? I swear they're the same... more on that strangeness later, ha!

Movin on up...

Pin It First projects!
Goodbye tonue cover! Now we actually have a usable teensy tiny small truck.

Goodbye 70's style blue and brown carpet! Hello hardwood floors!

I promise his head isn't that blurry in real life

All grown-up!

Pin It Note: I know some of my pictures aren't rotated correctly... no matter what I did they wouldn't rotate. Sorry, but tilt your head!

My niece is going to kindergarten in August. Crazy... it doesn't seem like that long ago I was holding her at the hospital or wearing pigtails.

Anyway, the other night while she was getting ready to go to bed she was showing off all of her reading skills. She was so into that she didn't want to go to bed, which of course isn't in the least a stalling technique, simply the mark of a young genius. So what does an English teacher who loves her niece and just happens to have a lot of time on her hands because her house still hasn't closed do? Make reading activities of course!

First up, my basically free "Reading Slider". First the supplies:
Paint samples in 3 colors, get the long ones
1 larger "fat" paint sample
Exacto knife
Sharpie
Scissors


1) Cut the colored paint strips in half (you don't really have to do this, but I felt guilty about taking the paint samples, so I tried to conserve).
2) Place beginning letters on one color, vowels on another, and ending consonants on a third. You can find the best letters to use by visiting sites like this.

3) Use an exacto knife to cut small slits in the "fat" sample, make sure they're large enough so you can weave your letters in. You could even laminate these pieces to make them more durable. I chose to make 4 slits so she has room to grow. Check out the pictures to get an idea of what I mean.

Level 1 - CVC Construction.

Level 2 - CCVC Construction, blending beginning sounds.

Level 3 - CVCC Construction, Blending ending sounds

Level 4 - CVVC Construction, Vowel blends

4) Teach the child how to use it to practice their mad skills.


The other project I did, the "Beginning Sound Exchange" was her favorite. It was also very budget friendly! Here are the supplies:
1) Markers
2) Word families site
3) Scissors
4) Spiral Bound Index Cards (I used these from Wal-Mart for $1.24)

1) Choose a few word families that you'd like to use and the words you would like to use. I used "an", "ap", "at", "ed", and "ip". I went with pretty simple ones for her to start with, but I also wanted to vary the ending consonant to give her more practice.

2) Give each section a heading card to keep them all separate and attach a "tab" (I used extra index card paper) to the title page. Cover the entire tab with tape to make it durable.

3) Count the number of index cards needed for the word family and make a slice 1/3 of the way through each card. Then, remove the large section from all but one card. This sounds confusing, but really isn't. Just write the beginning sound on the smaller, 1/3 portion. Only one piece should have the family's ending, like "an".

See how you can flip through the beginning letters without touching the word family part/

4) Repeat this step for all of the word families.

5) Then you can decorate/laminate the booklet. Next time, I'll reinforce the perforation to make sure it lasts.


I gave her all of the reading supplies in a decorate pencil pouch so she can have it all organized so her mom doesn't have to clean up paint samples and index cards for car trips or in the house.

I don't have a picture/video of her using it, but trust me, she was all about the "Beginning Sound Exchange" booklet. The "Reading Slider" takes a little more time and practice to figure out, and the skill is a little more advanced because she has to create the words, not just read them. Happy reading!!

Back to School

Pin It I'm all over Pinterest for good ideas for my classroom. I stumbled across a really neat idea for using a Facebook style worksheet to get to know your students. The catch was it wasn't editable, which I need for my kids' language levels and backgrounds... so I created my own and wanted to share it with you. Feel free to edit and use it in your classroom!

Here is a Microsoft Word version of the document and here is a Google Docs version of the document. Update: The converted version sucked... just click File:Download on the MSW version and it should work fine! Hopefully the formatting works on your computer, if not you may need to do some adjusting.