I Spy: Letters {Read the Room Brain Breaks}

How many of you use brain breaks in your classroom?! ME!! The kids need them....we need them. :) They're golden little nuggets of goodness! Especially in first grade when our precious firsties have all kinds of ants in their pants. Bless their six-seven year old bodies! I keep my classroom moving and grooving because they need it....and we need it too! I'm a whole brain kind of teacher: my kids don't have a chance to be bored or be still! We're singing, cheering (see HERE for my Classroom Cheers), using gestures for EV-ER-Y-THING...we're up, we're down, we're at our desks, we're on the carpets. Anyone getting ADD just from reading this? :) It sounds crazy...and it is BUT it's intentional engagement and it works!

In the effort to make every instructional moment count in my classroom, I created I Spy Read the Room brain breaks! I used them this past year and by george I'm going to be using them until kingdom come! They give the kids an intentional stretch break to get up and move around the room WHILE still actively on task and applying skills that we have learned. My kids would never know it (because they are having SO much FUN while they are doing it), but I am also using this time as a quick assessment to see if my precious firsties can find things in our room that apply to our skills. 

I'm excited to share with you that I am working on putting my I Spy Read the Room brain breaks together into packets! Since I change the version of I Spy that we use depending on the time of year and the unit/skills we are working, there will be many more of these to come, but to get ready for the beginning of the year this one is perfect to begin with:

 It's so easy to use too! Whenever your kids need a quick brain break just pull a stick out of the I Spy container and then the kids get up and play I Spy around our room! When they find something that fits, they stop, glue their feet by it and point to it. (sometimes a countdown is necessary for some of the slow movers :)

What's great about this letter version of I Spy is that it can be used for letter identification; beginning, middle, or ending sounds; or for short and long vowel sounds.

This packet includes everything that you need to make and use these I Spy Letters:

-instructions on how to make and use the I Spy Read the Room Brain Breaks

-I Spy container label (in 3 different sizes)-26 letter cards to make the I Spy brain break sticks (in squares for easy cutting!)

-I Spy Read and Write the Room Recording Sheet (to turn the brain break into a Write the Room activity OR center)

It's going to be on sale for the next 24 hours, so that you can grab it to get ready for back to school! And be on the lookout for more I Spy Read the Room Brain Breaks to be coming soon! I currently have 2D and 3D shapes, numbers, and clusters on the to do list next! Have a topic that you would like to see in I Spy? Just let me know!!

And as always, the first 2 people to leave a comment and email address will get it for free!

Happy Friday friends!