Pretzel Stretch with your Fists

You will be stretching and outlining a pretzel with your fists.
Preparation: Draw a pretzel on the board like the one shown.

1. Stand up.
2. Put your hands clasped together in front of you to make a fist.
3. Imagine that your fist is at one of the end points of the pretzel. Now keeping your hands together, draw the outline of a pretzel. You will be stopping and reversing directions at each end point of the pretzel. Try to do this as fast as you can.
4. Now outline a huge pretzel that touches the ground and stretches to over your head in the same way as before.

Inch Worm Brain Break

We should try to get a brain break in every 25 minutes in our classes. Brain Breaks give students a chance to take a break from the regular routine. This is a brain break that I learned while doing physical therapy on my knee.

1. Stand up.
2. Bend down and touch the ground with your hands. Bend your knees if you need to.
3. Start inching your hands out in front of you. Your feet remain in place. You will be moving your hands farther and farther out in front of you. More and more weight will be on your hands.
4. Once you have extended yourself as far as you can go, keep your hands still and start inching your legs forward until they meet your hands again. Try to keep your knees straight.
5. Repeat.

See the inchworm video.