70 Best Brain Breaks for Kids

As most teachers know, it can be challenging for students to sit at desks and focus for an entire class period. Many teachers find expert ways to mix up their lessons, shifting between tasks and keeping their students on their toes. However, studies also find that in-classroom activity breaks are associated with improved academic performance. To give your students a brain break, there’s no need to overturn your entire lesson plan or transform yourself into a P.E. teacher. Brain breaks can be quick, and they can require as little as switching seats, jumping 10 times, meditating, or doodling. Continue reading for 70 great brain breaks for kids in the classroom.

Energizing Brain Breaks for Kids 

1) Dance party

 What better way to get the class moving than by turning on a great song and dancing? Add some structure by assigning leaders to repeat dance moves for everyone else to follow.

2) Freeze dance

 Turn the dance party into a game with this classic activity. The rules are simple: when the music stops, students hold their poses. If you move, you’re out.

3) (Imaginary) jump rope

 To get your students’ blood flowing, hand out some imaginary jump ropes and have them skip it out to a 3- or 4-minute upbeat song.

4) Beanbag toss

 Set up baskets or buckets and have students toss beanbags into them, one at a time. This is a great way to do a physical activity while also remaining calm and focused.

5) 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

 Call out 5 physical exercises for students to do as a countdown. For example, they might do 5 hops, 4 pushups, 3 jumping jacks, 2 sit-ups, and 1 toe-touch stretch (these exercises can be adapted for students of different physical abilities).

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6) Do the wave

 As though they’re at an exciting baseball game, have your students stand up and wave their arms over their heads from one end of the classroom to the other.

7) Silent cheer

 Using only face expressions and animated body language, give your class 1-minute to enact the most enthusiastic cheer ever. This can involve jumping up and down, waving arms around, and silent screams.

8) Workout video

 There are a number of short workout videos for kids on YouTube, including those by The Body Coach TV.

9) Do a wall workout

 Have your students line up along a wall and do calf-stretches, wall-pushups, and wall-seats.

10) Find balance

 Ask your students to stand up and balance on one foot, and then the other. They can do this while bending their standing knees or standing on their tip toes. For a real challenge, try it with eyes closed.

Meditative Brain Breaks

11) Do nothing

 Let’s start with the most obvious: do nothing at all. Time your students 2 minutes of simple breathing, eyes closed.

12) Watch a calm scene

 As an alternative to closing their eyes, they can watch a calm scene of ocean waves or a breezy meadow. If you have trees outside your classroom window, they can look out the window instead.

13) Stretch

 Whether you’re 5 years old or 50 years old, a quick stretch can help immensely after sitting for a while. Take a look at these stretches for kids for some inspiration.

14) Silent ball

 For a bit of quiet competition, try this one. In a circle, students pass a ball back and forth without saying a single word while a timer runs. If a student talks or drops the ball, they are out. The winners are those still standing when the timer goes off.

15) Pick a mindfulness card

 Mindfulness cards for kids, which you can order for your classroom, are great for quick classroom brain breaks. Choose one in the middle of class, and then get back to your lesson.

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16) Animal yoga

 Take on this 4-minute animal yoga video with your class.

17) Mindful snack time

 If you would normally take a snack break with your class, try using it as an opportunity to practice mindfulness. Instruct your students to pay attention to the sights, smells, flavors, and textures of their snacks. They can also practice taking breaths between bites.

18) Just listen

 Have your students sit down or lie down as you ring a chime or gong, or play meditative sounds over a speaker. Classical music is also great for calming down and regaining focus.

19) Positive affirmations

 Instruct your students to write down 5 affirmations about themselves. These can range from “I love myself” to “I’m good at math” to “I’m a hard worker” to “I have friends who care about me.” These affirmations can foster optimism and confidence.

20) Take time to check-in

 Allow time for your students’ mental states with a brief emotion check-in. One way to do this is with emoji cards, having your students choose one that represents their mood today. A negative emotion doesn’t necessarily need to be solved, but it can help to feel heard and understood.

Artistic Brain Breaks

21) Free doodle

 What better way to take a calming break than to simply sit and draw? In this version, your students’ doodles can go wherever their pencils take them (a couple more structured drawing exercises are described below).

22) Random stuff sculpture

 For a class collaboration, have students take turns adding classroom objects to a class sculpture in whatever way they find most beautiful or interesting. This can also be done in small groups.

23) Playdough pause

 Pass out playdough and have your students build a 1-minute sculpture.

24) Mindful coloring

 Print out coloring pages with intricate designs and have your students color them in with colored pencils, focusing on precision. This activity is great for students of any age.

25) Musical statue

 Play songs of different tempos and genres. When the music stops, have students shape their bodies into sculptures that reflect the mood of the song. This can be done solo, in pairs, or in groups of any size.

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26) Beautify the margins

 Take a pause in the lesson to have your students color the margins of a handout or notebook page with colors and designs of their choosing. This can be done with markers, crayons, colored pencils, or pastels.

27) Collage

 Get crafty with your students by bringing in magazines and newspapers to cut up, as well as scissors and glue. Give your students 15 minutes to decorate their class notebooks.

28) Mind maps

 Have your students write down things that are on their minds, small and large, single words and complete sentences. Then, they can the words on the page based on their relationship. Lastly, in another color or medium, they can decorate their maps by filling in spaces with colorful words, shapes, and designs.

29) Artistic journaling

 Your students first choose one word to write on a page in whatever color they want. Then they journal around that word for a couple minutes, in different parts of the page. They then draw or paint a pattern over the whole page. Tape and glitter glue can also be used.

30) Circle patterns

For a DIY abstract coloring book, have your students draw multiple overlapping circles of different sizes on a page, and then color the spaces between them.

Games as Brain Breaks for Kids

31) Mixing and grouping

Students quickly get into groups according to the number you call. For instance, if you call “4,” students must quickly get into groups of 4. Those who are outside of a group must do a simple exercise, such as 10 jumping jacks.

32) Keep up the balloon

For a fun game that can be played from students’ desks, have your class work together to keep 1, 2, or 3 balloons in the air.

33) Limbo

 Put on the limbo song (or any other song) and have students play this crowd favorite.

34) Knot and unknot

 In this activity, students hold hands in a circle and twist and turn under each other until they’re all tangled up, and then they try to untangle themselves.

35) Pictionary

 A game for the artistically-inclined, Pictionary involves one partner pulling a word and conveying it to their partner (or group) to guess, only through drawing.

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36) Hot potato

 Play some music as students pass a ball or stuffed animal “potato.” When the music stops, they stop. Whoever is holding the ball when the music stops must do jumping jacks or answer a question.

37) Simon says

 This classic game is perfect for waking up your younger students.

38) Secret hand tap

 3 students go around the class and lightly tap 1-2 of their classmate’s hands, as the others close their eyes with hands on desks. Afterwards, those with their hands tapped guess who tapped their hands. They switch roles if their answers are correct.

39) Fizz buzz

 With a goal number in mind (say 20), students go around the room to count to that number. However, if a number is a certain multiple of 5, students must say “buzz.” If it’s a multiple of 7, they must say “fizz.” So, counting would go something like: 1, 2, 3, 4, buzz, 6, fizz, 8, 9, buzz, 11, 12, 13, fizz, buzz, 16…. etc. When someone messes up, the counting restarts.

40) Human tic-tac-toe: Using simple masking tape, create a giant tic-tac-toe board on the floor of the classroom and have students wearing different colors act as stand-ins for X’s and O’s.

Brain Breaks for Kindergarten

41) Float like a jellyfish

 Put on a calming video of jellyfish for 5 minutes and let your students be mesmerized. If it seems like they need to stand up, instruct them to raise their arms to the side and pretend to float quietly like the jellyfish.

42) Find the color

 Call out a color and have students move as fast as they can towards something of that color in the room. This can also work with shapes and textures.

43) Do the hokey pokey

 Put on this classic song and dance, and have your kindergarteners shake it all about.

44) Shake it out

 For a real moment of shaking, have your students shake like they have 100 pinballs bouncing around inside of them. Do this for 1 minute and have everyone countdown the last 10 seconds together.

45) Move like an animal

 Call out different animals and have your students move across the classroom like this animal. Some good ones include frogs, penguins, snakes, and spiders. For inspiration, watch some videos on YouTube of each animal ahead of time.

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46) Head-shoulders-knees-toes

 Enjoy this classic song and dance with your class.

47) Sidewalk chalk

 If it’s a nice day outside, take your students outdoors for a 10-minute sidewalk chalk brain break.

48) Shape up

 Have your students make basic shapes with their bodies, such as circles and triangles.

49) Blow bubbles

 Blowing and popping bubbles makes for another refreshing outdoor brain break for kindergarten students.

50) Active story time

 Read a short story to your class and instruct students to move at different points. For example, when the character jumps, your students jump. When the character goes to sleep, they all lie down and pretend to be asleep.

Brain Breaks for Elementary School Kids

51) Trading places

 Call out a trait, and have students quickly trade places with someone else who has that trait. For example, if you say, “wearing stripes,” everyone wearing stripes must trade places with someone else wearing stripes.

52) Balancing paper plates

 Have students walk around the room with paper plates balanced on their heads. If someone drops a plate, they must freeze until a classmate comes and picks up their plate (while keeping theirs on their head).

53) Line up

 Have students line up according to birthday or height, or alphabetically according to letters in first and last names.

54) Human alphabet

 Make a “human alphabet,” in which students create each letter of the alphabet with their bodies. This can be done solo or in groups.

55) Secret leader

 Choose a student (the investigator) to leave the classroom and another student (the secret leader) to coordinate the other students in actions like repeated clapping or chanting. The investigator enters the classroom and tries to identify the secret leader.

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56) Zip zap zoom

 In a circle, students pass around an imaginary “ball” of energy. They say “zip” when passing it clockwise, “zap” when passing it counterclockwise, and “zoom” to send it to someone across the circle. Students try not the ones holding the ball of energy when the 2-minute timer goes off.

57) Jump-counting

 Have your students count by 2s, 5s, or 10s, while jumping on each count. Then try counting backwards.

58) Categorization

 Call out a category (fruits, colors, cities), and have your students take turns shouting out examples as quickly as they can. For a quieter activity, have your students write down as many examples as they can in 2-minutes.

59) Learn a tongue twister

 Practice a few tongue twisters with your elementary school students. See how fast your students can say them without messing up.

60) Rhyme challenge

 Call out a word and have your students come up with as many words as possible that rhyme with it in one minute.

Brain Breaks for Middle and High School Kids

61) Mirror each other

 A common exercise in theatre and dance classes, one partner moves and the other must be their “mirror,” and then the roles switch. For a more difficult exercise, have students mirror each other while moving across the room.

62) Compliment circle

 Have a compliment circle, in which students sit in a circle for 5-minutes and shout out compliments to others in the circle.

63) Collaborative playlist

 Have your students each contribute songs to a collaborative playlist that can play on shuffle for 5 minutes during a brain break. While songs play, students can sit silently, draw, get up to refill their water bottles, or talk quietly amongst themselves.

64) 20 questions

 This one might already be familiar to many of your students. It can be played as a whole class or in small groups. One student (or the teacher) comes up with a word (animal, vegetable, or mineral), and others must guess the word by asking “yes or no” questions.

65) Names and moves

 Go around the class and have each student say their name and do a short dance move. Then, have everyone else repeat each name and dance move. For a challenge at the end, everyone tries to repeat every name and dance move in order.

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66) Dance break

 Have everyone do a well-known dance such as the Macarena, YMCA, or Electric Slide.

67) “Would you rather”

 Ask a “would you rather” (goofy or serious) question and have everyone move to one side of the room or the other depending on their answers.

68) Word association game

 Start by saying a word. As you go around the class, have students say the first word that comes to mind by association. See how the word changes by the time you get through the entire class.

69) Collaborative storytelling

 Similar to the word association game, start with a sentence and have students continue to add sentences until you have a twisting and turning narrative.

70) Make a meme

 For a laughter-filled brain break, provide your students with images and have them create funny memes.

Brain Breaks for Kids – Final Thoughts

All in all, these brain breaks are great ways to refocus or re-energize your class. Many of them can also be adapted to fit the themes of your lesson plans (for example, the “artistic journaling” can be environmental-science-focused, or the “20 questions” subject can be a well-known historical figure. For more classroom resources, check out the following blog articles:

• 131 Amazing Riddles for Kids with Answers—2024
• 45 Fun Classroom Games for Kids
• Best Teacher Intro Letter to Parents—With Examples
• 30 Writing Exercises for Preschoolers & Kindergarten
• 55 Best Short Stories for Kids and Middle Schoolers
• 141 Fun, Weird & Interesting Facts—2024
• 60 Best Short Stories for High School Students