GoNoodle
Brain Breaks with GoNoodle
GoNoodle is a free website where teachers can find the brain breaks they need to motivate students and help channel energy throughout the day!
With increasingly demanding lessons and testing preparations, many teachers employ the use of “brain breaks”. Brain Breaks are short bursts of physical activity that can be practiced throughout the day to improve student focus, engagement, and happiness! Educators have learned that regularly incorporating short movement activities into the instructional day not only allows children to get their ‘wiggles’ out, but energizes them and increases their ability to focus on the next learning activity as well. In addition, brain breaks are a great way to manage the stresses that come with rainy or cold weather indoor recess days.
GoNoodle’s online brain breaks provide teachers with an easy and fun way to keep students moving and learning. GoNoodling teachers spend time throughout the day dancing, running in place, or practicing yoga. These short investments (5 minutes or less) in student movement save time in the long-run as studies show students are most actively engaged in learning after a burst of exercise.
In addition to high-energy brain breaks, GoNoodle also includes calming and de-stressing activities like deep abdominal breathing and mindfulness exercises. Some of GoNoodle’s brain breaks are even aligned to core subjects so students can get their wiggles out while practicing fluency in Math and English Language Arts (ELA).
There are several sites out there that promote brain breaks, but US Digital Literacy thinks GoNoodle is one of the best! They also have a wonderful blog that includes the brain based research behind brain breaks for the classroom. Since launching their site in August 2013, more than 2 million students have enjoyed over 200 million minutes of physical activity with GoNoodle… a big win for student health, brain power and classroom engagement.
