Transcript Brain Buttons Exercise - Rayleigh Primary School

Brain Gym and Break
States
Brain Buttons Exercise
 Rub your “Brain Buttons” with the thumb and first
finger of one hand. (You’ll find these “buttons” at
the soft spot under your collarbone)
 As you rub them, move your eyes (not your head)
slowly up and down, i.e. tracking where the ceiling
meets the wall to where the floor meets the wall,
then left to right and right to left.
 While you rub your brain buttons, place the first
finger and middle finger of your other hand over
your navel
 Rest your tongue against the roof of your mouth
and think of something nice.
Break States/ Brain Gym
Outcomes of this session
You will:
 Understand the rationale for using Brain
Gym
 Understand how to use break states, and
brain gym activities in school
 have the opportunity to practise some
brain gym activities
 Know how to access further information
about brain gym.
Cross Crawl
 Standing, begin to “march” in time
 Raise your knees, and alternately touch
each knee with the opposite hand
 Progressively move your elbows to each
knee in sequence.
When done slowly this exercise requires fine motor
involvement and balance. Research shows that cross
crawl improves co-ordination, visual auditory and
kinaesthetic ability and can improve listening,
writing and memory.
Names in the Air
 With your preferred hand write out your
full name in the air, using large movements.
Do it forwards and backwards
 Now use your other hand to write your
name with both hands simultaneously.(If
you are right handed start in the centre
and work out. If you are left handed start
at the outside and work in
 Try this several times before going on to
another name or word
 Do it again but this time with eyes closed.
Names in the Air
 You can use this activity to help learn
key words, difficult spellings numbers
or formulae
 This is a left and right brained
activity which activated hand-eye
co-ordination and assists eye-teaming
across the visual mid-line. It helps
establish directionality and
orientation in space.
Movement and Physical Activity
 Strengthens heart and muscles
 Improves the flow of blood to the
brain and increases the connections
between neurons
 Aids integration of learning and
construction of meaning
 Allows full body-mind integration
“Unless learners are in the
appropriate learning state, it’s time
to stop everything and start
changing their states”
E. Jenson “Completing the puzzle:
A Brain based approach to
Learning.
Tension Relievers
 Take a long deep breath through the
nose
 Hold for 2-3 seconds
 Exhale slowly though the mouth,
relaxing the jaw and shoulder muscles
and breathing away tension
 Repeat several times
Alphabet Edit
 Read the letters of the alphabet
aloud as a small class or group whilst
completing the accompanying action
 Instructions: l is a left arm raise, r is
a right arm raise and t is both arms
together
Alphabet chart
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
l
t
r
r
t
t
l
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
l
r
t
t
r
l
l
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
t
t
l
r
t
r
r
V
W
X
Y
Z
t
l
l
l
r
Hook ups
 Sitting, put one ankle over the other one
 Extend your arms with the back of the hands together
and thumbs pointing down
 Lift one hand over the other,palms facing and
interlace your fingers
 Roll the interlocked hands straight down and in
towards the body so that they eventually rest on the
chest with the elbows down
 rest your tongue on the roof of your mouth behind
the teeth
 Sit like this for 1 minute , breathing deeply with your
eyes closed
Brain Gym and Break States
 Are an effective way of changing the
physical and mental states of the
learners in your class
 Involve physical and mental activity
 Connect left and right brain and help
to improve motor co-ordination.
Regular use of Brain Gym can
 Alleviate stress
 improve eye-hand co-ordination
 improve concentration on focussed
activities
 quicken the response time to visual
stimuli.