Get your GO NOODLE on!

Singing is fun, playing is nice, but GO NOODLING takes it to a WHOLE other level!

I might even venture to say that it has made the SINGLE biggest difference in our classroom management success this year!

That's a pretty bold statement, huh!  That's how much we LOVE and believe in GO NOODLE!!!

You have probably heard of it, but if not...then this is the perfect place for you to positively change the way you manage your classroom!

GO NOODLE is a FREE (one of the sweetest words to a teacher's ear) website that offers a TON of brain break videos.  

And I don't just mean hop around and act like a hopped up ninja brain breaks! Although that may just be my classes FAVORITE one...among other cranked up breaks that may just involve some "Shakin' of the BOOTY!"

It also offers yoga brain breaks. Mind you...a purple monkey leads the poses and our kiddos are big fans of that COOL "Pete the Cat"ish kinda monkey!

There are Calming brain breaks (breath in, breathe out...watch the bouncing star...UMMM!  Maybe these particular brain breaks are more for the teachers!  Hee Hee!

And Olympian-Led Sports brain breaks are on the list too!  I'm pretty sure I am getting r-e-e-a-a-a-a-a-l  close to making the Olympic team with all this training I'm doing!

Basically...there is something here for EVERY kind of kiddo you teach.  The brain breaks are divided by categories...Energizing, Calming, or Time (1-5 minutes) so you can pick just the right one for your kiddos.  Or better yet, let them make the call and tell YOU what they need!

There are a couple of ways you can incorporate these AWESOME brain breaks into your day that will make your life 100 times happier!  TRULY!

Kiddos are HYPER and BOUNCING off the walls!
Time for a brain break!  You may think, "WHAT??? They are already on the bus to crazy town, why would I possibly want to buy them a ticker???"  But alas, they NEED to spend some of that energy any way, so why not give them a POSITIVE way to do it?  They get to kick, dance, shake it, yell like a ninja, and it's ALL APPROPRIATE!!!!  Can I get an AMEN???

Or maybe you choose the "Let's breathe and watch the star go uuuuup and down, uuuup and down" to get them to settle down without you having to stomp your feet, beg, plead, and curl up in a corner in defeat! ;)

Kiddos are FADING on you fast and may actually be slowly drifting off to sleepy town!
Now!  Now is the time to have another brain break.  Get them up and moving.  Get those juices flowing.  Get those kiddos back in the game!  We've got work to do people, and we want our kiddos to be ACTIVE and WILLING...even HAPPY and ready to tackle whatever we throw at them!

Kiddos are ROCKING it OUT and working SOOOOO hard!
Yep...it's still time for a brain break!  You gotta keep this momentum going.  You want to reward them for their brains working so hard.  You want to keep them in the game!  Go get your GO NOODLE on!

True story... our kiddos are TOTALLY in love with GO NOODLE.  They ask us for them when they know a difficult task is coming. Like say we are about to work on building our stamina for read to self and we are getting close to 13 minutes.  Well...they know that's a LONG time to be quiet and stay focused.  So they ask to get some wiggles out!  How awesome is that!!!

Sometimes we make them EARN a brain break and sometimes we REWARD them with a brain break and sometimes we GIVE them a brain break because we see that we they just plain need it!

We get the kiddos to find a spot in the room where they can spin their arms and NOT touch anyone else.  They have to stay in that spot for the brain breaks.  You move all over the room...you sit down.  It doesn't take long for them to learn to STAY in their SPOT!

We probably do 3-4 breaks a day for a TOTAL of 10 minutes!

Some teachers are afraid they will be WASTING 10 minutes of instructional time, but we say you'll be GETTING BACK 5 HOURS of POSITIVE INSTRUCTIONAL TIME!

Some teachers say "I don't have time to GO NOODLE."  We say "You don't have time to NOT GO NOODLE!

That's it!  HAPPY TIMES can be yours again!  So...Go Get Your GO NOODLE on!!!

And also hop over to GO NOODLE'S blog for a linky about how other teachers are SUCCESSFULLY incorporating it into their own classrooms!   It works!