Brain Breaks Freebie

I'm sure all you teachers have seen "Brain Breaks" cards and lollipop sticks all over blog-land and Pinterest. Just in case you haven't (and for the non teachers!) the idea behind them is that you have a stack of ideas for activities and games for when your class need to give their brains a little break. They'll still be using their brains of course but in a more fun way! Some of the best ones are very active and give a noisy class a chance to burn off some energy before settling back down to work.

Of course there's no reason why you couldn't adapt these for use at home too! I'll include the word doc at the end so you can edit them so they are most useful for you and your kids!

You can absolutely make these just by writing the names of the activities on lollipop sticks. It'll be much quicker for sure. But I'm not sure they'll look quite as cute. And I have done most of the hard work for you! Plus the problem with just writing them on sticks is that you have to learn off the rules for each game. This way you'll have a cute picture on one side and a brief explanation on the back. Easy!

I've divided the activities into categories and colour coded them because I'm like that. :) And it will make life much easier! Sometimes you might want to focus on maths skills so you can purposefully choose a maths activity. There's also a few that involve the kids getting out of their seats, something you might not always have time and space for so you might want to avoid them!

Here's a list of the activities I've included:

Blue: Binary Fun (Maths) - Pop, Group Count, Coin Drop
Green: Get Out of Your Seat - Shoulder to Shoulder, Get in Order, Circles, Body Spelling, True or False
Orange: Oratory Activities (Literacy) - Categories, Fictionary, Sky Writing, Frozen Vocabulary
Purple: Pulse Raisers (High Energy) - Air Guitar, Action Dice, Memory Jump
Red: Random - Rainstorm, Open Mic, Yoga

All you have to do is print, cut and stick! I printed mine on photo paper as my laminator is broken and I wanted them to look glossy, but paper or card would work fine either.

There are of course hundreds of other activities that you could add. So do send me a link if you make some new ones of your own! :) Or leave me a comment with some ideas and I'll try add them in. And if any of the descriptions don't make sense let me know!

Click here to download your own Brain Breaks!
(And if you like them and want to show your appreciation by clicking on a few ads I promise to keep supplying you with free stuff for your classroom! :)

*If you'd like some more freebies be sure to follow blog and TPT store and check back in every Friday for a new freebie! Here's what you've missed so far - Friday Freebie #1, Friday Freebie #2, Friday Freebie #3, Friday Freebie #4.  

Things I've Learnt:
- Always proof read before printing on expensive photo paper! I forgot to change the colours so my maths and literacy ones as mixed up. :( Don't worry I've changed it now though so yours will be fine!
- These can be used when the class is losing focus on the task at hand, as a classroom management technique.
- They're also great as a reward when the class have been very well behaved. Or an individual reward for one child who gets to select the "brain break".
- Try using them as early finisher activities for small groups too.
- There's lots of commercial games that you could use in a similar way if you don't have the time to make these. I love the look of Cranium Brain Breaks for example.

Linked up to: Teaching Blog Addict - Freebie Friday, Ladybird Ln, It's a HodgePodge Life, Petals to Picots, Blissful and Domestic, Cheerios and Lattes, Classroom Freebies, One Less Headache, 2nd Grade Pad, 4th Grade Frolics, Reading Confetti, Sun Scholars, HoJo's Teachers Store

Day 30 - Make Your Own Scratch Cards!

So all this free time is giving me a chance to search for loads of great ideas for the classroom. I found this one a while ago over at ArtMind but just got around to giving it a try!

How to Make your Own Scratch Cards!

There are so many uses for this (and even if there wasn't it'd still be super fun!). You could make cards and cover the greeting with scratch paint, you could use it to make "save the date" cards, you could use it to run a fundraiser or just to leave sweet notes for the ones you love. 

But me? I'm going to use it to make classroom reward cards! If the kids are being particularly well behaved or trying exceptionally hard they are rewarded with one of these cards. They pick one at random and scratch it off to see what their reward is! Who wouldn't love that? :)

Want to know how to make some of your own? 

Here's what you'll need:

- washing up liquid

- silver acrylic paint

- coloured/white card

- clear contact

Mix 1 part washing up liquid with 2 parts acrylic paint.

It works best if you leave it to settle for 10 minutes or so, otherwise your paint might be a little bubbly! Oh and the best part is - as it's one third washing up liquid it's super easy to clean up after! :)

Print and cut out your reward cards (see the end of this post for a link to download mine for free!). My printer is out of colour ink so I just printed mine straight onto coloured card but I think it'd look so much cuter if you printed them in colour on white paper and then backed them onto coloured card. Next time! 

Cover the star on each card with a piece of sticky back clear contact.

Place this over whatever you plan to cover with paint, it'll make it much easier to scratch off.

Then paint over the writing!

It might not fully cover it first time so just add a second coat once its dry.

Then grab a coin and see what you've won!

Things I've learnt:

-  Two thin coats of paint works better than one thick one. It seems to scratch off better.
- It takes a while for the paint to dry. And some of the writing that looked hidden when wet could be seen when dry so make sure you leave enough time for touch ups!
- You could probably laminate them instead of covering with clear contact and ask the kids to return them so you could re-use them. But the contact is cheaper. And the kids will probably want to keep them! :)
- I had some left over paint so I painted some squares of clear contact. Now next time I'm making them I can just print, cut and stick on the scratchy stuff!

Click here to download in colour or black & white for free!

And if you like them and want to show your appreciation by clicking on a few ads I promise to keep supplying you with free stuff for your classroom! :)

Don't have time to make them now? Feel free to pin for later! :)

Linked up to 4th Grade Frolics, Fireflies and Jellybeans, The Crafty Blog Stalker, Michelle's Tasty Creations, Thirty Handmade Days, Teaching Blog Addict, Ladybird Ln, My Romantic Home, Classroom Freebies