Last year I came across a great tool called “Wheel Decide” which is a wonderful online tool to create wheels to pick games, songs, volunteers, you name it! I was able to create fun games in class such as “El espejo” (see my post from my presentationat TFLA to learn more about this game), but I always wished I could use pictures instead of words in the Wheel Decide tool.
I didn’t give up and finally found a tool that was mentioned in a blog called“The Techie Teacher”written by Julie Smith. In her blog, she has a simple and easy-to-follow tutorial for using this tool. I think that if you want to understand how the tool works, it’s better to head to her blog and read all about it, rather than me writing something that is already well explained.
If you have explored my blog, you have probably already noticed that I have different posts making reference to mental or brain breaks, yoga poses, and breathing exercises. I always felt that it would be fun to add a wheel to help decide on the different mental breaks to do with my students.
I made this “Wheel of Yoga Poses” graphic as a resource to compliment my yoga story. I hope you can use it in your classes and enjoy the poses – from mono, to perro, to rana and beyond. Click HERE to get the link for the Wheel of Yoga Poses.
I came up with this #quedateencasa version of the activity “Yo También” that I used with my students. It has been great to use at the beginning of class. If you haven’t used this activity yet, I have written two posts about how to use these images in the classroom.
I adapted this activity to a “Stay at home” version, with daily routines that students can easily do at home due to the current situation. I am currently using Zoom for my online classes. I share the screen and read the phrases to everyone. I scroll through the Zoom windows to see who has their hand up. I ask a few questions about the picture, for example, what type of pizza did you have?, what song did you sing?, who else like that song? and so on. I usually don’t take more than five minutes on this activity.
Are you ready to try it in your classes? Click hereto download it!
These days we are all spending a lot of time sitting in front of the computer. Taking the time to pause and breath is important in class. Doing simple breathing exercises and asking children to close their eyes while doing them is a quick way for them to take their eyes off the screen.
In this video I have shown 6 fun breathing exercises for you to learn and teach your students.
Movement Cards are a life saver in my classes. I like to use them as quick brain breaks with my younger students. Now that we have moved to teaching online due to the current health situation, I find that giving our students some time to move after staring at the screen computer or iPad for a while is extremely important. I have shared Movement Cards for different seasons and celebrations before, so adding a set with animals is a must!
Summer is around the corner and these movement cards are perfect to get your younger students ready for the season! Make sure to explore this blog to grab the different movement cards and brain breaks I have shared in the past.
My students have been enjoying the chance to use movement cards for our brain breaks, especially my kinder students. They love seeing the different themes for special occasions. Feel free to explore all the different movement cards featured on this blog. For now, here are the ones for Valentine’s Day!
Download them here, and get ready to have fun! Read them aloud to your students, and have them do what the cards say. Movements cards are not only great for brain breaks but also a good way to introduce or reinforce vocabulary.
