Time Fillers and Brain Breaks

SILENT CHARADES:  Divide players into two teams (TEAM 1 and TEAM 2).  The teams will go to opposite sides of the room. TEAM 2 will pick a word that TEAM 1 will have to guess. TEAM 2 begins by saying a word that rhymes with the mystery word as a clue (i.e. if the mystery word is cat, TEAM 2 might say bat.) TEAM 1 starts guessing by acting out a word that rhymes with bat such as rat or flat. When TEAM 1 correctly acts out the word TEAM 2 shakes their head yes, otherwise they shake their heads no.


20 QUESTIONS: Think of a person, animal or object. Students have twenty opportunities to ask yes/no questions to determine what you are thinking of. The first time you play, your students will need specific direction as to the types of questions to ask. You should help them understand how to ask strategic questions to identify the object.

PASSWORD:  Choose two students to be the contestants.  The two students go to the front of the room and face their classmates. Reveal a secret word to everyone except the contestants by writing it on the card and showing it to the class.  The students will raise their hands to volunteer to give one-word clues that might help the contestants guess the word. Contestants take turns calling on clue volunteers until one of the contestants correctly guesses the secret password. The contestant who guesses the password remains at the front of the class; the student who gave the final clue replaces the other contestant.  Choose words appropriate for your students’ abilities. Words for which they might know multiple synonyms or meanings are best!

SPARKLE:  Arrange students in a line. The teacher calls out a word. The first person in line calls out the first letter in that word. The second person calls out the second letter. The third person calls out the third letter and so on. The person who says the last letter in the word must turn to the next person in the sequence and say sparkle. The person who is sparkled must return to his or her seat. If a word is misspelled, the person to say the first wrong letter must sit down and the spelling of that word continues. After a student is sparkled, the teacher calls out a new word. The game continues until only one student remains standing.

FOUR CORNERS:  Number the corners of the classroom from 1 to 4. Select one student to be it. That person closes his or her eyes while the rest of the students go to one of the four corners in the classroom. When all students are settled in a corner, it calls out a number. All the children who are in the corner with that number are out of the game and must sit down. It closes his/her eyes again and the children move to a new corner. It calls out a number and those students must sit down. When the game gets down to four people or fewer, each must choose a different corner. If it calls out a corner where nobody is standing, it must choose again. The game continues until one child is left.

MYSTERY NUMBER LINE: Think of a number, write it down on a piece of paper and have the students guess the number.   

SILENCE:  Students must arrange themselves in order without uttering a peep! The teacher will name the unusual line up with some suggestions such as height (big to small, small to big), shoe size, alphabetical order by middle name, state capitals (write the state capital on sticky notes for each student and they must get in alphabetical order of the capital names), their birthdays (use sticky notes again), phone numbers, etc.   

SEVEN UP, STAND UP:  Choose 7 students to be it. Those students go to the front of the room. The other students put their heads on their desks so they can’t see. The 7 its wander the room. Each one LIGHTLY taps one of the seated students on the head. As a student is tapped, he or she raises a hand. When all 7 its return to the front of the room, they say in unison, “seven up, stand up!” Each student who was tapped has an opportunity to guess which student tapped him or her.  If a student guesses correctly, he or she replaces the person who did the tapping.

5-4-3-2-1: Students stand up and the teacher has them do five different movements in descending order (i.e. do five jumping jacks, spin around four times, hop on one foot three times, walk all the way around the classroom two times, give your neighbor one high-five).


MOVEMENT SONGShttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=388Q44ReOWE

PRETEND: Children will pretend to be various animals or objects (i.e. lawn mowers or airplanes).

WOULD YOU RATHER: see additional sheet

PHYSICAL CHALLENGES: Challenge students to do something physically difficult (i.e. stand on one foot with arms extended; grab your nose with left hand, and grab your left earlobe with your right hand, and then quickly switch so that your right hand is on your nose and your left hand is grabbing your right earlobe; yoga poses, etc.).

HUMAN KNOT: Divide students into groups of about eight students and have the students each grab right hands with someone who is not directly next to them. Do the same with left hands. The challenge is to untangle and become a circle without releasing hands.

JUMP SKIP COUNTING: Have students count by twos, fives, tens etc. while jumping with each count.

CALMING CHANT: You: When I say LOUD, you say quiet; You: LOUD; Kids: Quiet; You: LOUD; Kids: Quiet.  You can also use: fast/slow, yes, no, stop/go, high/low, etc.