Brain Breaks and Body Signals

Hey There!

I hope you all had a great week.  Mine?  Was the world's longest.  I'm not quiet sure why that was - but man, did it EVER d r a g!

I think it might have had something to do with the rain, the cold as well as Boston and Texas.  My heart really does go out to each and everyone of you and I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. 

I was just going to ask you all if you have figured out my teaching style by following me on my blog...but then I thought about that.  I'm not sure I could say that I know my own teaching style.  I think I am a chameleon ... sort of ... kind of.  I'm rigid in some areas and super flexible in others.  I'm organized in a lot of ways and a hot mess in others {I've got a closet that would curl your nose hairs}. Mostly, I'm who I need to be, when I need to be.

One thing that I'm pretty consistent with is encouraging my kiddos to listen to their body signals and give their body what it needs.  From the way that I "run" my Daily 5 where I ask them to listen to their "body signals" to helping my kiddos "find their pace".  Think about the life skills you give your kiddos when you teach them how to self regulate.

So, this week we've been a little off.  Indoor recess will do that to you.  Combine that with a mighty rigorous curriculum and you'll catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror...right around Friday...and realize you only put mascara on one set of eyelashes...

To keep each one of us sane this week we took many a brain break.  I have a bunch of my videos/songs bookmarked, but it seems like I'm constantly Googling to find this one or that one, or I bookmarked it on this computer but not that one.  I finally put some of my favorites in a document that I'll save on both desktops in my classroom so it will always be there hand dandy-like.  I thought you might like it too...




Click pic to grab a copy!

The document is a list of songs that I use in the classroom along with the hyperlinks.  I just want to remind you to always watch the videos before playing - you just never know how the links may change and certain advertisements might not be the most appropriate.  I always turn off the projector that I display the videos on so that I can see if there are ads and then wait so that I can "skip ad"...last thing you need is to explain to your little ones what Viagra is. 

Here's our newest favorite...




One of my kiddos asked a great question on Friday.  He wondered why we some of our brain breaks are calm ones and some we jump around and dance.  We had a chance to talk about our little "engines" and that sometimes they are running super fast, like after recess.  So we'd need to focus on our breathing, do our brain gym and find our pace, put our heads down and chillax so that we can do big learning.

Then there are times that we've been working so hard and listening for so long that our eyes are everywhere but on our teacher.  Our shoes have been tied and untied a million times, and we've fallen out of our chair more than a few times. Little wondering man interrupted saying "THAT'S when we have to dance and jump around to get our sillies out"...yup, you guessed it little man, you guessed it.

Happy weekend!!!!!

P.S.  Did you notice my new cute "pin it" button? {do a little hover over one of my pictures} Thanks Tessa for that cuteness!