Warming Up the Brain
One thing that we can do to increase our students’ cognitive performance is to add some brain exercises to our warm-up routines.
(For those of you that don’t know what “cognitive performance” is: its how well a student can think and remember what they learned in class.)
In order to do so, you must get the left and right hemispheres of the brain working. You can accomplish this by doing neurobics, which is the creation of new neural pathways in unconventional ways:
Here’s what to do (based on SKILLZ planners that use four warm-up routines each class):
In your first warm-up exercise have the students count differently. For example: backwards, By 10’s, By 100’s, etc.
In the second exercise have them count in a different language.
In the third exercises instead of having them count, have 10 random students say a different boy or girl name. For example: 1. Jill, 2. Lisa, 3. Jessica…
In the fourth exercise, call out 10 different fruits or vegetables and have the students reply with its color. For example: Apple = red, Lemon = yellow, Grape = purple
After the four exercises, have them sit with their eyes close and have them take 10 deep meditative breaths.
Here’s are some other ideas:
- Name 10 rock bands.
- Name 10 super heroes.
- Name 10 villains.
This method creates more neurological connections in the brain because now the left and right brains are talking to each other, which again are referred to as neurobics.
Try it out tonight and let me know how it works by replying in the comments section below!