Math Brain Break

Frequent Brain Breaks are important for our students. We do them in the midst of a lesson if we want to keep teaching but feel students are beginning to wain. We do them in between rounds to renew minds and give bodies a break. They are also of great value when gathering students back for instruction, providing engagement to those who are ready so they don't have to sit idly while waiting for everyone to gather. This is one of our favorite brain breaks, in particular for Math.

1) The teacher or a student does a silent signal with either their fingers or on a white board what number they will count by and how far to count.

2) Students find a partner.

3) Children skip count by the selected number while toe-tapping their partners feet - right foot to right foot, then left foot to left foot, counting one number with each toe-tap.
Crossing over the midline of one's body is an excellent way to reset the brain and doing this while skip counting is a wonderful way to practice this all-important skill.