Brain Breaks

Sometimes the kids are tired and their brain, too. They need a break. So there is a technique called BRAIN BREAK. A brain break is a short mental break that is taken during regular intervals during classroom instruction, this is a physical activity that can be matched with music.

 This tool can help kids to get focus and keep calm. As we all know, kids have a ton of expendable energy and it can often present itself at inopportune times. So a brain break might be beneficial for you to regain control while also re-focusing the kids’ minds and sense of clarity.

WHAT ACTIVITIES CAN WE DO?

There are many activities that you can do in 5 or 10 minutes, for example some of the activities that I usually do:

·     Simon says is a classic game that gets students up and moving. It's also a game that you can end after one minute or five minutes. It’s so useful to review the verbs.

·  The song Head, shoulder, knees and toes is another classic that everybody likes and enjoy.

·    Choo choo train. The students make a line, play some music and ask them to move when the music stars and get freeze when the music stops. They move with the rhythm, they learn to listen and follow instructions, and they enjoy it!!!

·    Have a three minute dance party. Put students favorite song and allow students to dance, stop the music and ask them to get freeze. Play the music again and ask them to  dance or do another action.

This activities can be performed from around 5 to 20 minutes.

TO GET MORE IDEAS!!!

In these links you can find more activities:

https://unicefkidpower.org/brain-breaks-for-kids/

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-a-brain-break-2081615

And if you want to move like a penguin at the rhythm of the music, this is  a nice video for you:

❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤

❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤👀❤

Music therapy for ADHD kids

I work in a preschool and I have children with different capacities and knowledge problems. Some students are diagnosed with ADHD, so I've started looking for some therapies with music and I find them. But, before we go into the topic let’s see What ADHD is.

What Is ADHD? 

ADHD is the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. It is a medical condition. A person with ADHD has differences in brain development and brain activity that affect attention, the ability to sit still, and self-control. ADHD can affect a child at school, at home, and in friendships.

Kids with ADHD may have signs from one, two, or all three of these categories:

• Inattentive. Kids who are inattentive (easily distracted) have trouble focusing their attention, concentrating, and staying on task. They may not listen well to directions, may miss important details, and may not finish what they start. They may daydream or dawdle too much. They may seem absent-minded or forgetful, and lose track of their things.
• Hyperactive. Kids who are hyperactive are fidgety, restless, and easily bored. They may have trouble sitting still, or staying quiet when needed. They may rush through things and make careless mistakes. They may climb, jump, or roughhouse when they shouldn't. Without meaning to, they may act in ways that disrupt others.
• Impulsive. Kids who are impulsive act too quickly before thinking. They often interrupt, might push or grab, and find it hard to wait. They may do things without asking for permission, take things that aren't theirs, or act in ways that are risky. They may have emotional reactions that seem too intense for the situation.

Some therapies with music help to improve the brain functions, they use different musical styles and instruments. To developed the children attention is so important because when they play an instrument or listen to it, they develop the sense of rhythm and the ability to listen. So they can improve their focus attention 👀👂 and it's possible that music could become a non-pharmacological intervention. In the link below we have a program that helps children to improve the brain health, at any age or level of ability.

https://advancedbrain.com/the-listening-program/

There is a success story about Max. He was diagnosed with ADHD, and his parents wanted to avoid putting him on prescription drugs of any kind, so they spoke with a neurofeedback doctor, and found their way to The Listening Program®. Since using TLP, Max’s entire family has seen a change. His teacher reported a “significant improvement” in his behavior in the classroom. He’s more able to “go with the flow” according to his mom, and no longer do last minute changes in plans get him worked up as they did before. Also, The Listening Program® can help on autism, ADD and ADHD kids.

REFERENCES
https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/adhd.html
https://advancedbrain.com/the-listening-program/

Relaxing Music

Hello! Today I'm going to talk about the use of music in the classroom. This is a useful tool to help kids calm down and focus.

✨🌈✨🌼🌻🌼🌻🍄🌹🌼🌻🌹🌺🌼🌻🌹🌷🌼🌻🌹🌸🌼🌻🌹🌼🌻🌼🌻✨🌈✨

Music is an art, entertainment, pleasure, meditation and a medicine for the soul and the body, the music can regulate and change emotional states. Certain music improves the mood, intelligence, motivation and concentration. It also improves the quality of life and aids in physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs. It helps in the treatment of autism, dementia, Alzheimer’s, chronic pain, emotional trauma, mental disorders, and depression. Music decreases anxiety, anger, stress, and frustration.

The music involves the use of the whole brain. It improves:

• Memory
• Attention 
• Physical coordination 
• Mental development

The instrumental music can be used for relaxation, study, meditation and stress relief. So it is great to use it in the classroom at the moment the kids are doing some activities like painting, coloring, drawing or just when you want to create a peaceful and nice environment.

Sometimes, I used instrumental music at the moment the kids are doing an activity on the book, it works pretty good cause they focus better in the activity. Also, the music relaxes the teacher 😊

I was searching for new music and I found this relaxing guitar music for children, I hope you like it.

✨🌈✨🌼🌻🌼🌻🍄🌹🌼🌻🌹🌺🌼🌻🌹🌷🌼🌻🌹🌸🌼🌻🌹🌼🌻🌼🌻✨🌈✨

References:

https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/The-Effect-of-Music-on-Human-Health-and-Brain-Growth

EXPLORING THE SENSE OF 👂

Hi!! I looked for some activities that you can use to explore the sense of hearing. I hope they can be useful and fun 😊

Activities:

• Let the kids play with a tape recorder. Record each child talking. Play the tapes later and let the kids guess who it is. You can also record cartoon characters speaking and see if the children can guess who the character is.

• Have the kids pretend to be robots. The robots must follow directions. Tell the kids the robot code. One beep means move your arm, two beeps means jump, and so on. Make up directions for the robots to follow.

• Let the kids make music with musical jars. Collect about five jars or glasses. Fill each of the jars with a different amount of water. Using a metal spoon, let the kids tap on the jars to make music.

• Teach the kids about loud sounds versus soft sounds. Play music very loud and then very soft. Give the kids instruments and have them play loudly and then quietly.

• Let the kids play with seashells . Show them how to put the seashell to their ears to hear the ocean. Get bubble wrap and cover a section of the floor with it. Let the kids walk on it to make lots of noise.

• Matching game. Fill eggs with beans, coins, marbles, corn, rice, soil, pasta, etc. The boys shook the eggs and paired them by sound. After matching each pair they guessed the contents of the eggs.

These are some ideas that you can adapt to your class 😉

REFERENCES

https://wehavekids.com/parenting/5-senses-activities

http://www.learnplayimagine.com/2012/10/3-ways-to-explore-sense-of-hearing.html

https://playtolearnpreschool.us/sound-matching-game/

THE MUSIC IN PRESCHOOL

Hello everyone!!! Today I want to share some useful information about the use of music  in classroom. You'll discovered why it is important the use of this tool.

Many teachers know that songs are fun and can engage young English learners, and understanding more deeply the benefits for child development and learning could help them use songs more effectively. Music and song can do the following:

• Provide authentic, meaningful context: Using songs bring authentic language. The new language becomes more comprehensible, memorable and useful.

• Introduce children to the target culture: perhaps the first exposure to the existence and richness of a culture.

• Create enjoyable classroom atmosphere: students lower their anxiety.

• Provide opportunities to practice oral language: the melody and rhythm are useful for improving students’ pronunciation and intonation.

•  Aid in retention and comprehension: the rhythm and repetition in songs help learners retain new language.

• Enhance literacy instructions: They are effective for developing phonemic awareness.

Furthermore, children are able to retain much larger amounts of information through the use of songs. Researcher asserts that a child can imitate the rhythm and musical contours of the language long before he can say the words, and caretakers of young children will agree. Musical aspects of language, tone, pauses, stress, and timbre are sonorous units into which phonemes, the consonant and vowel sounds of language, are later placed .

There are many songs that you can use, one of the favorite songs last year was "Baby Shark". So, I share the video. Enjoy it 😁

After you have read it and watched the video, please comment about what the children can learn or develop with this song.