9 Brain Breaks to Foster Connection in Middle School 

Taking quick and intentional breaks from instruction for team-building, movement, and connection can shift energy in the classroom, allowing students to reset and reapproach lessons with improved focus. Brain breaks can engage middle school students in a wide range of ways—from giving students an opportunity to get up and move to creating a few moments of space to reconnect with peers. 

In just a few minutes, teachers can have students work together in teams, building communication and collaboration skills that carry far beyond the brain break. As a class, students can tell a story, with each student adding one sentence at a time to the plot. The story weaves together, one student at a time, and ends with the last student. The class could also count to 15, with kids saying one number at a time, popcorn-style, until they reach 15, but if two students say a number at the same time, they restart at one. Or, students can break into teams for a word jumble game, re-scrambling the letters of a word to create as many different words as possible. 

To get students up and moving, teachers can suddenly call out a trait, like “something yellow!” and the class jumps up to find something in the room that matches. With a little more prep, teachers can queue up a song and students can decide whether it’s a “bop” or a “flop” by standing up and dancing or sitting down with thumbs down, changing their minds as the song carries on. Teachers can also give students a chance to move by having them walk around the room balancing a paper plate on their head. If a student drops their plate, they freeze until someone places it back on their head.

Choosing brain breaks that provide a space for reconnection and positivity can also have great benefits for middle school students. Teachers can introduce quick moments of community-strengthening activities like compliment circles, reflections on positive moments, and sharing a rose and thorn from the day, in pairs or as a group.

When deciding what brain break activities work best for their class, teachers have a range of options that not only foster connection and boost students’ mood, but are also simple enough to fit into a few short minutes of the day.

For many more ideas and to learn why brain breaks are so effective, check out Edutopia’s collection, Brain Breaks for Your Classroom.

Break ideas sourced from Brittany Williamson, mental health counselor at Florida Children’s Institute; Jenna Smith, middle school teacher in South Jersey; Katrina Harte, chemistry teacher from Sydney, Australia; Live Healthy Iowa Kids; New Visions for Public Schools; and Joe Cole, director of teaching and learning at New City Charter School in Minneapolis, for The Responsive Classroom.