Sunday, November 11, 2012

Brain Fitness


Since everyone knows I'm interested in the brain, I thought I'd do a post on Brain Fitness.

Here are some ways I teach the kids to keep their brains fit:
  1. Exercise!  Get the oxygen to the brain!  We often do exercises in the classroom.
  2. Eat Brain Food!  Sometimes I bring in some healthy snacks for the kids.  (probably not fish or spinach, but maybe some carrots and berries!)
  3. Ease stress!  These kids certainly understand what stress it!  I often do some Yoga moves and breathing exercises with them.
  4. Listen to Music!  I've got a wide variety of music to play in the classroom, from "party" music, to mellow music for concentration. 
  5. Laugh! I recently posted Laughter is Truly the Best Medicine, and  listed some of the benefits of humor in the classroom.  I have a whole box of joke books that I usually bring out on April Fool's day, but I think I'll bring them out early this year!
  6. Drink water!  I encourage children to bring in water bottles and refill them throughout the day.  Of course, we have a bathroom in the classroom, too! 
  7. Keep challenging your brain!  I have a variety of games, puzzles and riddles for the children to choose from.  I'm a big fan of Sudoku, so I keep a few of those for the kids.  I also found a couple of cool websites: ABCya Tangram Puzzles has  tangrams that can be done at the computer.  Puzzle Choice has tons of puzzles for kids and adults- go to Kid's Choice for lots of possibilities for printing as well as puzzles for the computer.  
How do you help your students keep their brains fit?

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