High school education is fast-paced and a total change of pace for kiddies! With so many different classes and so much learning going on, the day can be hard going. Carving out some time to switch off from the learning and take the pressure off a little can really help to promote your student’s well-being and academic success! Brain breaks are simple, brief, and refreshing activities that’ll help boost focus. Read on to discover 35 superb brain-break activities for your high schoolers!
1. Desk Yoga
Grab a peaceful moment of bliss in your classroom by introducing desk yoga. Guide your students through stretches and poses right there, from their desks! Desk yoga has a whole bunch of benefits, including promoting physical wellness, enhancing concentration, and cultivating inner calmness. Stretch and de-stress!
Learn More: Adventure Yogi
2. Breaks of Mindful Breathing
…and breathe! Incorporating a mindful breathing break is a simple way to step into relaxation. Take your kiddies through some simple breathing exercises for a maximum of five minutes. The exercises will allow your students to inhale fresh air and exhale stress. It also helps them to focus and improve their concentration in lessons.
Learn More: Action For Healthy Kids
3. Pictionary
Ignite creativity and build collaboration through a Pictionary showdown. Divide your class into teams and have them compete by drawing simple sketches of a given word! The team with the most correct guesses is the winner! This is the perfect way to foster communication and lighten the mood after a long day of learning in your classroom!
Learn More: Wiki How
4. Go Scavenger Hunting
Transform your learning environment by taking your kiddos on a scavenger hunt – if the weather allows, you could even take it outside! Swap the classroom walls for the great outdoors to get a change of scenery to give those brains a break. You can even create your own scavenger hunt to inspire your kids to work on their teamwork, observational skills, and their physical well-being!
Learn More: Parents
5. Charade Challenges
Enhance your learners’ non-verbal communication skills with a fun game of charades! Let your kids try to guess what’s being acted out in order to score points. This activity not only enhances their creativity and expressiveness but it’ll also get them laughing! This fun game is sure to leave them feeling refreshed for the next challenge in class.
Learn More: Fun Stuff To Do
6. Clapping Rhythmically
Needing to up the energy levels in your classroom? Why not introduce rhythmic clapping games? Your little ones can start by learning a few popular rhymes and then build up to creating their own clapping rhythm and rhyme. They’ll need to concentrate to perfect the clapping pattern and memorize the rhymes before adding them all together!
Learn More: A Bridge Club
7. Take a Tour Down Memory Lane
Encourage your students to take a trip down memory lane. Bust out this fun printable board game and let them share a treasured memory or positive encounter with a classmate. This brain break is a fantastic way to enhance their emotional wellness while building connections on a personal level with their classmates!
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
8. Unlock Human Knots
Can your kiddos untangle a human knot? Start by having them stand in a circle then join hands until they’re all tangled up. Once the knot is fully formed, their mission is to try and untangle the knot without letting go of each other. This hilarious game is sure to challenge their teamwork skills while giving them a welcome break from their classwork.
Learn More: Theatre Folk
9. Word Association or Disassociation
Boost your learners’ vocabulary with this no-prep brain break game! Get your students standing in a circle then let them take turns to say a word closely associated with the previous one, or unrelated depending on which version you’re playing. This game will encourage them to think quickly and creatively!
Learn More: Growing Play
10. Laughter Yoga Bursts
They do say that laughter is the best medicine. Boost your students’ spirits with some laughter yoga! Combine breathing and stretches associated with yoga with laughter – it might feel strange at first, but before long they’ll be relaxed into it. Laughter yoga is an amazing way to enhance their physical and mental well-being while reducing stress!
Learn More: Positive Psychology
11. Expressive Drawing Tasks
Give your kids a break from the usual class routine by letting them do a bit of art. Display a prompt and give them the opportunity to draw or sketch out what they think it means. As they illustrate, they’ll be able to let their creativity and imagination run free!
Learn More: Intuitive Creativity
12. Freeze Frame Story Time
Freeze frame story time is a fun-filled brain break activity. Get your kiddos into groups and let them arrange themselves into a freeze frame! Get the rest of the class to see if they can figure out what’s going on. This activity will help to enhance your kiddies’ abilities to tell stories and work collaboratively.
Learn More: Drama Resource
13. Trivia Teasers Challengers
Clear the brain fog by doing trivia teaser tournaments in your classroom. Divide your kids into groups and have them jump in on rapid-fire trivia sessions. Make sure you’ve set up the sessions to include multiple questions and cover many subjects beyond your normal classwork. This activity is sure to spark the thrill of learning, teamwork, and friendly competition!
Learn More: Fun Trivia
14. Balloon Pop Tournaments
What could be more different to your regularly scheduled classwork than a balloon pop tournament? Display a problem or challenge then let your kids race to complete it in teams. The fastest team gets to “pop” one of another team’s balloons by crossing it off the score sheet. The winning team is the team with the most balloons left at the end of the game!
Learn More: Miss Calculate
15. Silent Disco
Convert your classroom into a dance floor! Set your kiddies up with some wireless headphones and let them listen and dance to their favorite songs. This fun activity is noise-free and gives your little ones a physical outlet to shake off the dust from a long day! They’ll also have some room to express themselves freely and individually as they bust a move!
Learn More: Get Ahead
16. Emoji Charades
Your class will love playing Emoji Charades! In this game, they’ll use their devices to select emojis to illustrate a target word or character. This digital activity serves as the perfect way to break up the day with a fun activity that your kiddies will definitely relate to!
Learn More: Game Cake Studios
17. Quick Fire Story Building
Jumpstart your students’ storytelling abilities with this brain-break activity! Let your kids take turns creating a story by each adding one sentence at a time. By engaging them in a quick-fire story-building challenge they’ll boat their imaginative storytelling skills and enhance their team working skills!
Learn More: Imagine Forest
18. Desk Drums
Make music and beats by converting the desks into drum sets! Your kids will love creating their own rhythms and beats by tapping their desks with rulers, pencils, or even their hands. The result? A simple, no-prep mini-music lesson that they can have fun with!
Learn More: YouTube
19. The Mystery Box
As the name suggests, your learners will unravel mysteries packed inside a box in this game. Place a bunch of different objects inside a box then let your kiddos try to feel each item and describe it to the others. This tactile activity will help them improve their communication and sensory awareness, all in a fun and mysterious way!
Learn More: Lydia’s Handmade Life
20. Alphabetical Word Association
Using word association games is a fantastic way to jazz up your students’ vocabularies. Start by naming a topic; next, you’ll let your kids take turns to come up with a word relating to that topic for each letter of the alphabet. This quickfire brain break is ideal for challenging your little ones’ literacy skills and will have them thinking outside the box for letters like X and Z!
Learn More: ESL Games
21. Mindful Nature Observation
Help your little ones embrace mindfulness beyond the classroom! Take them outside and allow them to observe nature mindfully, noticing the sights and sounds. Let them connect with the environment and you’ll find that when you return to the classroom they’re more settled and ready to learn.
Learn More: Botanical Trader
22. Reverse Charades
Reverse Charades is a super fun team game! This challenge changes the traditional way of playing charades by having one person guess and the rest of the group act! This unique twist brings laughter, boosts creativity, and enhances teamwork in your kiddies!
Learn More: Ultra Board Games
23. Jigsaw Puzzle Race
This might be the calmest race your kiddos ever take part in! A jigsaw puzzle race will help them to develop rapid thinking and teamwork skills as well as practicing a bit of mindfulness! Group your class into teams and give each team a jigsaw puzzle to complete. Which team will focus and finish their puzzle first?
Learn More: Games
24. Mini-Debates
Mini debates are a quick way to mix things up in your room! Conduct short debates on fun topics within the classroom by choosing lighthearted topics and dividing the class accordingly. The rapid nature of these mini-debates will encourage your learners to think on their feet and is sure to get them impassioned! All you need to do is ask the question, then set the timer – your kids will do the rest!
Learn More: Ellii
25. Rapid Math Relay
A rapid math relay is a fun way to energize your students, whilst still offering an educational activity! Start by splitting your class into teams, then set them loose on some fast-paced math exercises. They’ll solve the questions within their teams working working to complete all the questions before the other teams!
Learn More: TES
26. Expressive Mime Challenge
The expressive mime challenge targets your kiddies’ creative side! Challenge them to act out short skits to describe a scenario or emotion. What a fun way to bring the theater into the classroom and boost their creativity!
Learn More: Twinkl
27. Story In a Bag
Story in a bag couldn’t be any simpler to organize! Just grab a couple of different items Place random objects inside a bag then let your little ones pick each object and develop a collaborative story around it! This fun activity helps grow their creativity and brings an element of surprise to learning!
Learn More: How Does She
28. Quick Art Doodle Dash
Use Art Doodle Dash to inspire your student’s creativity and bring out their artistic side! Working against a clock, your students will race to doodle down something to illustrate a given word or phrase. A guesser will then need to try to work out the word with points going to the player who illustrated it best!
Learn More: Board Game Geek
29. Guess The Sound Challenge
Get your kiddos to tune in with a Guess The Sound challenge! Play different sounds from different environments, nature, animals, and more then challenge your students to guess what they hear. Encourage them to focus on the sounds and then recall prior knowledge to make an informed guess!
Learn More: YouTube
30. Human Bingo Connection
Human Bingo is a super brain break for your kids at the start of the school year. Simply print off the bingo card filled with different traits and let your learners mingle and ask each other questions to find people with those traits. This activity is ideal for the start of the year when your kids are all still getting to know each other!
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
31. Emoji Reflection Journal
Emojis are a whole different language that your learners are fluent in. These journals will let them reflect on their day and their education using this language! They’ll use emojis to describe everything from how they feel their learning is going to what they think of their classroom!
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32. Random Dance Party
Hosting a random dance party is a surefire way to boost your students’ energy levels! Turn up the music and let your little ones dance that brain fog away! After a long day of learning, this brain break could be exactly what they need to get their heads back in the game for the next lesson!
Learn More: Kim And Kalee
33. Travel Trivia
Travel the world from your classroom with travel trivia! Ask your kiddies questions all about different countries, cultures, and geographical locations, and let them compete in teams to answer as many as they can! The friendly competition will spark their enthusiasm and the questions will develop their global awareness at the same time – it’s a win-win!
Learn More: Bucket List Journey
34. Language Tongue Twisters
Your kids will be tying themselves in knots trying to get these tongue twisters out! Display a couple of these tricky sentences and see if they can successfully get through each of them without any slip-ups. Not only will this activity give them a fun break from classwork, but it’s also sure to lead to lots of laughter!
Learn More: Play Osmo
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