yellow background with clipart of a brain lifting weights and smiling, test says more brain breaks that energize, engage, and focus students

So much screen time, so few opportunities for physical movement. Unfortunately, this is the current reality for many students across the world. With many students returning from Spring Break this week, it might be helpful to have a few new brain breaks to try.

Brain breaks are short activities that are designed to improve student focus and attention by stimulating blood and oxygen flow to the brain. You may remember that we previously explored some excellent brain break options for virtual or face-to-face learners.

As follows are a few more exciting brain breaks that students of all ages might enjoy. You may also notice that although these particular brain breaks are well-suited for virtual learners, they will also work well in face-to-face or hybrid situations.

Single Item Scavenger Hunt

In a previous post, we explored using Scavenger Hunts as a means to help students generalize what they have learned. For the purposes of a brain break, you might limit your scavenger hunts to a single item per round. If you want to keep score, give a set amount of time (ex. 1 minute) and every student who returns with the item within that time period gets a point. Play as many rounds as you like.

Ideas for items:

  • something round
  • 35 cents
  • remote control
  • cup of water
  • something squishy
  • an item you can’t live without
  • an object with a 3-syllable name

Sixty Second Sculptures

Make sure that each of your students has a can of Playdough or other form of modeling clay or dough. Color is not really important. You give your students a broad category and they have 1 minute to create a related sculpture.

The possibilities for categories that you might use are endless. Here are a few ideas to get you going:

  • your favorite movie
  • in the ocean
  • it’s for dinner
  • a personal strength
  • my hobby
  • fictional character
  • down on the farm

For extra fun, encourage students to guess each classmate’s sculpture.

on left a boy's hands are molding blue and red clay, in the center a young girl holds up a flower made of clay, on the right is a rainbow made of clay

Simon Says

Simon Says is a popular game that can also serve as a fun brain break. When playing on Zoom or other virtual platform, you will want to set your screen display to gallery view so that you can see all of your students.

Be That Character

Create a PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation that includes one image per slide. Each image should be a person, animal, movie character, etc. Share your screen. When students see an image, they should imitate what is on the screen.

There are so many possible options for this brain break. Students can swim like a sea turtle, dance like their favorite pop star, run like an Olympic sprinter, or spring into action like their favorite super hero.

on left a girl is pretending to fly, in middle 2 girls are playing toy guitars and a boy is singing with a microphone, on the right a young boy is dressed like Superman

Alternating Hands

Ask students to hold up both hands with palms facing away from them. They should begin by moving their left hand up and down. After a few seconds ask them to simultaneously move their right hand back and forth. This is a wonderful brain break because it requires a lot of concentration to get the coordination right.

Enjoy these brain breaks with your students. Be sure to check out all of the excellent blog posts, videos, and free resources that are available.

Happy teaching!

Featured Resources 

The ultimate icebreaker:

Keep your whole class engaged:

navy blue background with gray text that says "pinch cards that engage all students. In the middle are decorative clipart representing pinch cards.

Fun & interactive trivia challenge:

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Meaningful & engaging assessments:

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