Brain Breaks
11/10/2017
Helen Fowler Neville, a pediatric nurse and author of Is This a Phase? Child Development & Parent Strategies, Birth to 6 Years, claims that a 6-year old child may stay interested on a single activity for as much as 30 minutes. In third grade, there are days when students have a big block of one class. For example, on Thursdays, science or social studies go for an hour and a half. Students may get tired or bored if they just sit and listen to a teacher talking the entire time. So how do we keep students motivated? How do we improve student attention span?
A psychiatry Harvard professor, John Ratey, wrote a book called Spark that explains the science of physical exercise and its effects on the brain. As physical activity boosts blood flow to the brain, it optimizes memory and learning. PNA educates the whole child and values the importance of physical activity through PE classes, electives, and daily outdoor recess. In third grade, students have a kinesthetic brain break between two 45-minutes classes. Brain breaks take 2-3 minutes of physical movement to stimulate the brain and help both left and right hemispheres to work together. Research has also shown that brain breaks help improve students; concentration, attention span and relieve stress. Watch the video below to see a brain break in action.
Sources:
Neville, H. Is this a phase? Parenting Press. Retrieved from http://www.parentingpress.com/media/is-this-a-phase_excerpt2.html Ratey, John J.,Hagerman, Eric. (2008) Spark :the revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain. New York : Little, Brown Comments are closed.
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Jessica GrahamMs. Graham graduated from the University of Alabama with a BS in Early Childhood/Elementary Education, and is currently working on her master's in reading. She enjoys hiking, traveling, arts & crafts, and playing the ukulele. Archives
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