Go Noodle!

I am a huge fan of the Michigan Scholastic Educator, Erin Klein.  I love her blogs and pretty much everything she does that has to do with teaching.  After reading her entry about this awesome website that allows students to take different types of brain breaks throughout the day, I had to try it.  As the end of the year was approaching, keeping students focused was a challenge.  As soon as I implemented GoNoodle the kids seemed to have more energy and were ready to learn.

This website is brilliant.  The students can pick a monster-like avatar to represent our classroom progress and as the students complete more brain breaks, the avatar becomes bigger and stronger.  I can choose the perfect type of brain break according to the time of day and/or behavior I observe occurring in the classroom.  For example, if I see the kids need to focus I can do a stretching activity. If they need to get out some energy in the afternoon I can do a more vigorous activity.  I projected the site through a Chromebook onto a big white screen so the kids could see it well.  We also quickly pushed out any furniture that was in the way so we could have plenty of room.  There are so many great mini-videos to choose from.  I would choose most of the time, but if a student was celebrating his or her birthday they got to choose.  There are many popular songs and dances and the number one activity selected in my classroom was singing the song "Let it Go" from the Frozen movie.

Every time this FREE brain break site was used in my room, I participated right along with the kids.  I was amazed how good the stretches felt and how out of shape I felt when we would dance.  It was fun and I discovered that moving our bodies to stay alert and energized is a valid claim.  I will definitely use this on a daily basis next fall.