Made by Mike Gershon – mikegershon@hotmail.com

Ideas From:

My HeadOther people’s headshttp://www.kellybear.com/TeacherArticles/TeacherTip69.html http://plays.about.com/od/improvgames/qt/dictionary.htm

A collection of

movement breaks you can use in

your classroom.

All intended to give

students a break from

whatever they are

doing.

And to help them have some fun!

Mirror Me Simon Says Stand Up Sit DownZip Zap Boing Make A Train The Sun Shines OnImage Envoys Shape Your Learning Touch The SkyCharades Mime General Stretching MarchingMulti-Tasking Puppet On A String Dance-OkeCollecting Can You Help EmotionsShapes Chain Reaction Tennis Ball 1Tennis Ball 2 This is a Spoon Mexican WaveStand Crouch Sit Dictionary Swap Seats

Human Shape Professions

Back to Contents

Turn your classroom into a giant mirror...

• Teacher stands or sits at the front of the class.

• Students stand or sit, following the teacher.

• Whatever the teacher does, the students must create a mirror image.

• For example, if the teacher raises their right arm, students will raise their left arm.

Extend by having a student take on the ‘lead’ role or by increasing the speed and complexity of movements.

Back to Contents

The old game of ‘Simon Says’ except in this case it will be ‘Teacher Says’ or ‘Student Says’.

• Whoever is to lead comes to the front of the class.

• They perform actions prefaced by the statement ‘Simon says...’

• The class have to copy/play out the actions stated.

• The leader tries to knock students out by stating an action without the preface ‘Simon says...’

• Anyone who does the action at that point is out!

• Continue until there is a winner.

Back to Contents

A great movement break for encouraging cooperation and generating excitement.

• All students stand up.

• The aim is for all students to sit back down, having called out numbers from 1 – X(however many in the class) in order.

• Students are not allowed to communicate.

• The first student to sit down must say ‘1’, the second ‘2’ and so on.

• If any students say numbers at the same time, everyone has to stand up and start again.

Back to Contents

Zip Zap Boing is a game of fast gestures and quick thinking.

• Students stand in a circle.

• There are three commands: Zip, Zap and Boing.

• Zip: Students indicate left or right with their hands and say ‘zip’.• Zap: Students point across the circle with their hands and say ‘zap’.• Boing: Students face the person who has zipped or zapped them, put up their arms and say ‘boing’.

• The ‘energy’ is passed around the circle using the commands. Anyone who is too slow, mixes up the gestures and commands or gets it wrong is out. Play on until a winner is found.

Back to Contents

Recreate the locomotive journeys of yesteryear.

• Students stand up.

• The front row of students lead off, forming a train.

• The rest of the students join on until the whole class is a full train.

• The train moves around the classroom making train noises or performing train like actions. This could be supplemented by a narrative from the teacher in which different events occur that the train members respond to.

Back to Contents

Shine the sun on some different features.

• Students sit in a circle.

• The teacher calls out ‘The sun shines on...’ and then chooses a feature:

e.g.

Anyone who watched the X Factor last nightAnyone wearing brown shoesAnyone with a ponytail

• Students who this applies to must stand up and change places.

• Extend by getting students to lead.

Back to Contents

A bit like charades, but with a twist...

• Students are put in groups.

• One member of each group comes to see the teacher, who shows them an image.

• The students return to their groups and mime the image.

• The first group to guess correctly wins a point.

• Extend by getting students to bring in images, perhaps of an increasingly difficult-to-mime nature.

Back to Contents

Turn your students into human Plasticine

• Students are asked to turn themselves into a shape which matches or demonstrates their learning.

• Extend by splitting the class in half. One half are to shape their learning whilst the other half walk round the ‘gallery’ trying to work out what each shape represents.

Back to Contents

A very simple movement break.

• Students stand up.

• Led by the teacher they try to touch the sky by stretching up as far as possible.

• This could be accompanied by a rousing narrative/enthusiastic encouragement given by the teacher.

Back to Contents

A familiar party game brought into the classroom.

• Students are either put in groups or play as a whole class.

• The teacher provides words, phrases, book titles etc.

• These are shown secretly to the performing student(s).

• In silence the student(s) must perform the clue whilst their peers try and guess what it is.

Back to Contents

As if you were warming up for a race...

• Students stand up.

• Teacher or student leads the class in a series of warm-up style stretches.

• These could include –

Arm circlesToe touchingHoppingJumpingStanding on one legArms out forwards

And so on.

Back to Contents

A martial activity.

• Students stand up.

• Either in groups, teams or individually the students march on the spot keeping to the rhythm set by the teacher.

• Mix up with instructions such as Left Turn, Right Turn etc.

• Combine with recitation of alphabet/key words/multiplication tables etc.

Back to Contents

A classic, simple movement activity.

• Students are asked to do two things at once. For example...

Pat their head and rub their stomach.

Snap their fingers and nod their heads.

Clap their hands and stomp their feet.

Extend by asking students to come up with their own multitasking challenges.

Back to Contents

This helps build students’ trust of one another.

• Students get into pairs.

• They stand one behind the other.

• The front person is the puppet.

• The back person gives instructions which the first person follows. This could be supplemented by hand movements as if they were ‘pulling the strings’.

• Students swap over and go again.

Back to Contents

Like karaoke but with dancing.

• Use a video or music track with a familiar or easy to copy dance routine.

• Students stand up and follow the routine.

Extend by introducing more complex routines or striving to perfect the first one chosen.

Back to Contents

Helps students to find out about one another.

• Place a list of statements on the board like:

Someone who supports Arsenal.

Someone who has two middle names.

A person who has been to America.

• Students must then move around the room and find someone in the class who fits each statement.

Extend by creating a bingo style sheet for students to fill in.

Back to Contents

A great way to turn students into teachers.

• Each student comes up with a question they would like answered which links to the topic.

• Students stand up and move around the room, asking people their question.

• Students compare the answers they receive.

• If they are finished, students seek out questions to answer, or come up with another one to ask.

Back to Contents

A very emotional activity.

• Students can be stood up or sat down.

• Teacher or student chooses an emotion.

• The whole class display that emotion on their face, exaggerating for effect.

• Students turn and look at one another.

• Another emotion is chosen and the pattern repeated.

Back to Contents

Could lead to confusion and some interesting developments.

• Students stand up.

• The teacher either calls out a shape or object, or displays one on the board.

• Students must then try to recreate the shape/object using their body or, perhaps, in pairs.

• Shapes or objects could include anything!

Back to Contents

An activity that might require some practice in order to get it perfect.

• All students stand up.

• An action is agreed upon, for example a ‘thumbs up’ or a ‘high five’.

• The first student does the action, setting off a chain reaction in which every subsequent student repeats the action in turn.

Extend by changing the start point or having two simultaneous actions going round.

Back to Contents

Quick reactions and quick thinking again with this activity.

• Students stand or sit.

• The teacher starts with a tennis ball.

• They ask a question and throw it to a student.

• That student must answer the question to earn the right to pose one of their own.

• Having earned the right, the student poses a question and throws the ball to someone else.

• And so on...

Back to Contents

More tennis related activity...

• Students sit or stand.

• Teacher starts with the tennis ball.

• They announce a topic, for example food, for which each member of the class must be prepared to state their favourite variety.

• The ball is thrown around. Each student announces their favourite. The activity continues until everyone has taken part.

Back to Contents

Students must act like spies in this game of distance.

• Students stand up, preferably in a reasonably large, clear space.

• Every student must secretly choose another student who they have to follow, whilst keeping at least one person in between them.

• The game begins: students try to surreptitiously follow their chosen peer, all the time keeping another person between the two of them.

Extend by only having half the students as followers or half as detectives.

Back to ContentsMadcap fun with pens disguised as cutlery.

• Stand in a circle.

• One person is the ‘knower’. They have two pens and decide which one is the spoon and which one is the knife.

• They begin by passing the spoon to their left and the knife to their right and stating: ‘This is a spoon/knife.’

• The first person to receive asks ‘A what?’ The knower responds – ‘A spoon/knife’.

• Every movement on requires the spoon/knife to then return to the knower who again indicates what it is, their peers subsequently passing it back and relating the information to the next person along.

Back to Contents

Akin to being at a major sporting event.

• Students are sat down.

• At a signal the first student stands up, throwing their arms in the air.

• The next student follows on immediately after.

• This is repeated through the whole class.

Extend by getting faster or starting multiple waves at different points.

Back to Contents

An AFL movement break.

• Begin with all students sat down.

• The teacher refers to the learning in some way.

• If students feel confident with the learning they stand, if OK they crouch/hover between sitting and standing, if not sure they stay sat down.

• This can then be used to allow peer teaching.

Back to Contents

An improvisation activity.

• Students can be sat down or stood up.

• Teacher or student selects a page in the dictionary.

• A word is picked from that page.

• Students then improvise around that word, creating a short piece that in some way includes it (either in groups or individually).

Back to Contents

Depends how important your seating plan is.

• Half the class stand up.

• They must now swap seats!

Extend by asking pairs to swap together or setting rules, e.g. You must move at least one space vertical and two spaces horizontal.

Back to Contents

Make a giant shape.

• Students stand up.

• The teacher brings a shape up on the board.

• Either groups or the whole class must recreate the shape.

Back to Contents

A bit like work experience.

• Students stand up.

• The teacher or a student chooses a profession.

• All students must act as if they are a member of that profession.

• Actions/behaviours could be exaggerated for comic effect.