It's time to stop and focus on an action to be able to continue with the class.

These short breaks are essential to renew the kids' energy and be more prepared for what follows.

You can use this resource at any time during the class if you think it's necessary.

 10 Seconds Object

This activity gets students using their bodies to create freeze frames (like a real life frozen image) that depict an object or a situation. Use this activity to talk about how we can communicate meaning through movement.
Break students into small groups and call out an object or scenario (such as the North Pole, peacock, at the beach, washing machine etc.). Count down from ten to zero. While you are counting down, students have to create the object, character or situation using their bodies. When you reach zero, shout “Freeze!”! Give each group a thumbs up or thumbs down depending on if they have represented the stimulus in a way that makes sense. Continue, keeping the pace up to ensure students are engaged and thinking on their feet! You can decide on a “scoring” method that feels right for you (such as giving scores out of ten or choosing one winner per round), or you may prefer not to “score” at all, and just use the activity as a confidence and group awareness building exercise.
As they understand the game, create a way that one team gives the theme to the other. They can write down themes and the teacher draws them, or just let one team choose the other’s theme. 

Tongue Twister

Everyone loves a tongue twister. Get warmed up by getting your pupils to practise saying some of these slippery sentences:

• Red lorry, yellow lorry

• Unique New York

• She sells seashells on the seashore

• A proper copper coffee pot

• If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many pickled peppers would Peter Piper pick? 

Freeze and Switch 

In this game, the teacher must propose an initial theme for the story, like “Josh ordered a pizza” or “Ana can’t bake a cake”. Two or three students play the scene for some time until the teacher commands “freeze!”. The students stop the scene but stay in the previous position. Now, one or two students go in the scene and change places with one of the characters. The teacher commands “go” and a new scene, based on how the characters are disposed, continues. 

“I’m Sorry I…”
Stand in a spaced-out circle with your pupils. Child A addresses Child B with a sentence starting with, “I’m sorry I…”. It’s up to them what they come up with. It could be, “ate your lunch”, “lost your football”, or, “sent your brother to space”. 
Child B then responds with whatever emotion they choose. Child B will then begin the process again by addressing Child C and so on. Not only does this practise coming up with creative scenarios, but it also makes your children think about how they convey emotions.

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Verbal Venn
A student chooses two disparate objects, the other student attempts to find a linking characteristic between those two objects and the word that would go in the middle of the imaginary Venn diagram. For example, player one says, "magazine and oven." A potential answer might say, "Cookbooks: things that you read and things in the kitchen." 

Not Three of a Kind
One person names 3 similar objects and the other player(s) have to figure out how one of them does not fit in the group. For example: pig, fox, tomato. Pig and fox are animals so tomato is the odd one out.

 

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