Friday, October 17, 2008

Get Rid of Extra Energy IN CLASS!

Do your students every get restless in class? Mine certainly do. Our PE department had a suggestion to put a Bouncy Ball in the classroom to act as a chair for a student. It an excellent suggestion. I tried it and it worked great. The first day, I had students sign up for the use of the Bouncy Ball. I had maybe 25% of my class sign up. After they all had a chance to try it, I had maybe 10% of the class that wanted to continue to use it in class. So then I had about three students that rotated using it. What is best is that the students who are always up and active in the class are the ones who like it. The drawbacks are that they lose air and sometimes pop, which is what happened to me. I'm still trying to get my new bouncy ball for this year.

They do make bouncy ball chairs. This would be a smaller bouncy ball embedded into actual chair. Click here to go to the site.
Also, I received a suggestion this week from a blog reader Sue McGraw to put a small trampoline in the class. This would be an excellent release of energy for a student. Make sure you have high ceilings. Click here for the website.
Happy Brain Breaks

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Paper Twirling Brain Break


You should be taking a brain break every 25 minutes.
This will help you focus and concentrate.
Take the paper with your palm up in one hand.
Twirl it around your back and catch (don't grab) it with the other.
Twirl (go around and around) as fast as you can.
Switch directions.