As the holidays approach and winter weather prevents kids from working out their wiggles outdoors, ‘tis the season for some fun tips for a stress-free and positive indoor recess!
We chatted with our Master Teachers about some of their go-to brain breaks and activities to give you some ideas to add to your teacher toolbox—and added a few of our own favorites, too.
1. Relax & Unwind: Help students clear their minds before the next period with Calm for relaxing guided meditations.
2. Get Cozy: Create a peaceful, relaxed classroom feel by projecting a crackling fire or natural scene on your interactive whiteboard, and let kids settle in to work on a quiet activity of their choice.
3. Inspire Art: Let students channel their inner artists by sharing some Ready, Set, Draw videos from KidLit TV and other drawing resources from this collection on Epic!.
4. Bust a Move: Get kids dancing with Go Noodle or learn new moves with hip-hop dance videos on Epic!. You can also check out Incredibox for fun beats to inspire kids to create their own movements.
Give students who may need something extra to do the role of “DJ” and let them choose the songs!
5. STEM for the Win: Have kids explore a collection of STEM books. Then, using whatever materials you have in your classroom (like blocks, legos and Playdough), let students build their own robots, cars or machines. Teacher’s Pay Teachers has some pretty cool STEM resources to help you get started.
6. Brainy Break: Create a trivia game on Kahoot or have kids take a quiz on Epic! and let students test each others’ knowledge on their favorite topics.
7. Kids Choice: Jumping jacks, running in place or squats? Students can take turns being the movement leader.
They’ll love the chance to be the “teacher” by choosing the movement and how many of each movement the class should do!
8. Comics: It’s reading, but with a fun twist. Give students an extra special opportunity to explore comic books on Epic!. Better yet? Have them create their own! Either by themselves or by collaborating with their classmates.
9. Spark Creativity: From how to make origami to holiday crafts, these DIY videos and books for your classroom will turn any disappointment about indoor recess into craft-ernoon delight!
10. Storybooks with a Twist: Movies are great, but so are animated storybooks! Here are some of our favorite animated picture book videos on Epic!.
We hope you enjoy these tips!
A special thank you to Epic! Master Teachers Angela Tackett, Andy McCall, Andy Schiller, Aileen Halvorsen, Nikki Smith, Linda Meckem, Rachel Howard, Kristen Poindexter, Courtney Myers and others for sharing their amazing ideas.
Be a Spark Contributor!
Do you have innovative ideas or inspiring stories to share with your fellow Epic! Educators? Be a guest author for Spark!
Submit your topics and ideas to spark@getepic.com.
Be sure to check out these guidelines before submitting your post.
