10 Quiet Brain Breaks that Every Teacher Needs

I am teaching an “older crowd” this year – juniors and seniors. In my experience, not only are they not as willing to jump around and be silly in class for brain breaks, but they also don’t have the wiggles as badly and don’t necessarily feel they need to move around as much. So, I’ve been on the hunt for some new brain breaks.

At iFLT in Cincinnati, OH last month, I was able to watch Mark Mallaney teach upper level students and I noticed that he had students moving, but they were moving quietly. He taught the students two brain breaks that were incredibly stimulating to their minds, but didn’t require a lot of noise. The first was rabbit/hunter and the second was three snaps/two snaps.

1. Rabbit / Hunter

• Hold up two fingers on the right hand to look like bunny ears.
• With the left hand, use your thumb and index finger to look like a gun.
• Move both hands to the right.
• Then switch so that the left hand is the bunny ears and the right hand has the gun, both hands move to the left. It’s harder than it seems!
• Switch back and forth.

2. Three Snaps / Two Snaps

• With the right hand, snap three times in a slow, even rhythm, while moving the hand vertically.
• The left hand will only snap twice (in unison with the right hand and also moving vertically)
• When the right hand goes down to the third position to snap, the left hand will have to go back up to the top.
• Both hands snap continuously, but they are in different positions most of the time.
• When you have mastered it (which I STILL have not!), switch to the left hand snapping three times and the right snapping twice.

I was so lucky to be included Michele Whaley’s coaching group at iFLT and we did a couple of activities along these lines as well.

3. Invisible (silent) Ball Toss

• Stand in a circle.
• One person tosses a pretend ball in the air and points to the person who will catch it.
• Everyone “watches” the ball travel to the recipient.
• The recipient “catches” the ball and “tosses” it to someone else.

4. Slo-mo Invisible (silent) Ball Toss

• Same as Invisible (silent) Ball Toss, only done in super-slow-mo.

5. Mirror-Mirror
I really liked this because at the end I felt so connected to my partner! Michele and I discussed how the research shows that mirror neurons in my brain were actually making a connection with the mirror neurons in my partner’s brain.

• The first time through, the group faces the teacher and follows his/her movements.
• The second time through, complete as partners.
• Sit facing your partner with palms facing each other, almost touching.
• Look at your partner and do not give in to the temptation to watch your hands.
• One person is the leader and moves their hands, while the other follows. The goal is to be in sync so that an observer would not be able to tell who is the leader and who is the follower.
• The teacher calls out when to switch places as leader/follower.

6. A friend who attended a different iFLT session taught me Fist Bump/High 5.

• Sit facing your partner.
• With your right hands (so that you have to move diagonally across your body), cross midline and fist bump.
• Then with your left hands, cross midline and high five.
• Switch your fist bump/high 5 hands so that the right hand is giving a high 5 and the left is doing the fist bump.
• Keep switching. The longer you go the harder is seems to be!

These brain breaks really got me to thinking about how to stimulate students’ brains while still giving them the necessary time to process what we just covered in class AND keep things quiet and calm. I expend so much energy in class, that by the end of the day I am often exhausted. Having these quieter brain breaks will hopefully help on the days I need a rest. So I went on the hunt and came up with a variety of hand / body exercises that get students moving but aren’t so rowdy. I came up with several!

Ambidextrous hand training activities are at the top of my list because they stimulate the brain differently way than what I’ve done in the past. All of these activities can be completed silently… which, let’s face it, we sometimes need in order to get through the day!

7. Mork from Ork
Remember the show “Mork and Mindy?” I loved this show as a kid! My mom even bought me a rainbow puffy vest for Christmas one year – just like Mork’s!!

  

I call this Mork from Ork because it reminds me of Robin Williams saying “Nanu Nanu” as Mork.

• Start with your hands facing palms out, fingers splayed.
• Move your fingers into the Mork from Ork position shown in the picture above.
• In a “windshield wiper motion,” move your fingers from the original position to one where the middle and ring fingers are together, leaving the pinky and index fingers as “singles.”
• Move both hands in the same motion.
• Once you have mastered that, start with the left hand in the Mork from Ork starting position and the right hand in the second position. WOW! That takes so much concentration! Moving your hands in opposition is hard!

8. Counting by 2’s (This uses the middle finger quite a bit, so it may not be good for all ages/levels/groups).

• Hold up the right hand as if you are showing rabbit ears or the number 2.
• Hold up the left hand showing the middle and ring fingers, fingers separated.
• On the right hand, close the index finger and then raise the ring finger (a 2-beat process).
• On the left hand, close the ring finger and raise the index finger (in the same 2-beat process).
• After a few reps of doing each hand individually, move the hands in unison so that you are closing and opening different fingers on each hand at the same time.

9. 2 Fists

• Hold your hands in fist shapes as if you are about to fist bump a friend.
• On the right hand, extend the pinky.
• On the left hand, extend the thumb.
• Simultaneously change which hand has the pinky/thumb extended.
• Go back and forth for a while. It’s more complicated than it appears!

10. Thumb and Finger Twiddling

• Face palms together, fingers splayed, fingertips touching. 
• Slowly “twiddle” your thumbs by moving them around each other in a circular motion. 
• Reverse the circular motion.
• Repeat with each pair of fingers: index, middle, ring, and pinky. Things begin to get complicated when you move to the middle fingers. The ring fingers are super tricky!!