Brain Break Wheel

Loud and quiet on the same wheel

The list mixes high-energy breaks with calm ones on purpose. After a test you want "silent count to 30" and "deep breaths", not a freeze dance. After forty minutes of sitting still you want the opposite.

Rather than making you pick — which puts you back in the position of choosing, and of being blamed for choosing wrong — the wheel gives you a mix. If a particular lesson needs one kind, delete the others before you spin; it takes ten seconds.

Everything here fits in about two minutes and needs no equipment or setup.

What's on the Brain Break Wheel wheel

All 16 options are on the wheel to start with. Edit, delete or add to them — the wheel redraws as you type.

• Stand up and stretch
• 20 jumping jacks
• Simon says (1 minute)
• Silent count to 30
• Dance for one song
• Desk drumming rhythm
• Draw something in 60 seconds
• Tell your neighbour one good thing
• Balance on one foot
• Deep breaths x10
• Rock paper scissors tournament
• Look out the window quietly
• Neck and shoulder rolls
• Would you rather (one question)
• Freeze dance
• Two-minute doodle

Using it well

• Fullscreen on the board. The class sees the options, which is half the fun, and they can see the pick was not yours.
• Let a student spin. Working it into the student picker rotation gives whoever is picked the job of spinning.
• Remove-after-spin across a week so you are not doing jumping jacks every afternoon.
• Keep it to two minutes. A brain break that runs to five is just a break, and getting the class back costs more than the reset gained.

Add your own — breaks tied to what the class is studying, or in-jokes from the room, always land better than a generic list.