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!