I just ran across this website on Twitter and thought it might be of interest to anyone who looks at this blog.

http://www.teachtechy.com/TeachTechie/My_Blog/Entries/2009/8/6_Brain_Compatible_Learning.html

Station 1 – Downhill Ball – Students will sit on the mat with their legs extended and straight. After placing the ball in their lap, they will raise their torso with their arms behing them and roll the ball down to their feet.  To keep the ball from rolling away, they must flex their feet.

Station 2 – Spin Board – Students sit on the spinboard with their legs crossed.  They spin themselves in both directions by pushing the floor with their hands.

Station 3 – Balance Board – Students stand on the Belgau Balance Board with their feet an equal distance from the center of the board. They toss and catch a bean bag while trying to keep the board in a level position.

Station 4 – Hoop Jump – Students hold the straight end of the hoop jump, step over the curved end, and bring the hoop over the heads. When they get it rotating quickly, they can use it like a jump rope.

Station 5 – Scooter Board – Students lay on the scooter on their stomach and push themselves forward using their hands on the ground. They weave in and out of the three yellow cones and return to the starting position.

Station 6 – Rock and Row – Students sit facing each other on the big red ball. They grip the stick at both ends and row forward, backward, and side to side while bouncing on the ball.

Station 7 – Horizontal Waves – Students stand with their feet on the footprints directly in front of the board and their hands behind their back.  They start on the far side and draw a wave from one side of the board to the other, making sure to curve at the top and the bottom.

Station 8 – Balance Beam – Students stand at the end of the balance beam with a beanbag in each hand.  They carefully walk across the beam and drop the beanbag in the ball to the right.  They have to change directions to walk across the other balance beam.  When they get over the bowl, they drop the other beanbag.

Station 9 – Rabbit Hop – Students hop to each dot, landing with both feet.  When they come to a dot with a dome cone, they jump over the dot.

Station 10 – Superman Ball Tap – Students lay on their stomach facing the ball. With both hand, they tap the ball 10 times.

Do you or your child have problems getting a restful night’s sleep? I came across this activity on the The Handle Institute website that would be worth trying. According to the website,

“In order for us to get restful sleep, we need to be relaxed. If we are unaware of our body’s position in space we will have a hard time relaxing enough to fall asleep with our eyes closed.

Once we have fallen asleep, if our automatic danger systems–our ears and our noses–are somehow not serving us well, we will awaken, perhaps with great fear, every fifteen minutes or so. Or we may not actually awaken, but don’t allow ourselves to fall into deep, restful sleep.

One easy solution to this problem is to plug in a humidifier, filled with water and a drop of aroma. (Lavender is probably one of the better choices.) This will provide a white-noise so the ears will not be listening for and responsive to other elements in the sound environment (such as the refrigerator motor, a car back-firing, etc.). It will also provide moisture and a calming background scent to keep the nasal passages operative, yet relaxed.

As the weather gets chilly in most of the Northern hemisphere, this pointer may be particularly helpful to those who use dry heat in their homes.

The parents of a little boy, nearly four years old, who had not slept through a single night because of his sleep problems, highly recommends this procedure they learned from HANDLE. It worked for them the very first night they tried it. They went in to check their son several times in the morning to make sure he was all right, because he slept soundly until 9:30 AM.”

Station 1 – Spin Board – Students will sit on their bottom with their legs crossed.  They push off the floor with their hands to spin themselves as fast or slow as they are comfortable with.

Station 2 – Scooter Board – One student stands on the rope with both feet to keep it tight.  The other student lays on the scooter board on his/her stomach and pulls the rope hand-over-hand to the wall.

Station 3 – Twirl and Jump – Students stand on a colored square and swing the ball in front of them to jump over it.  They work on standing in one place and keeping the stick in a vertical position next to their leg.

Station 4 – Launch Board – Students place a beanbag on one end of the launch board.  They stomp on the opposite end causing the beanbag to pop up in the air so they can catch it.

Station 5 – Ball Dribble – Students dribble the ball in the blue square.  First and second graders walk around the ball as they dribble.

Station 6 – Board Work – Students draw a spiderweb in one color and a tornado on top of their spiderweb in a different color.

Station 7 – Cup Walkers – Students walk forward, backward, and sideways on with their feet on the cup walkers and pulling the strings up as they lift their legs.

Station 8 – Handy Elbows – Students kneel in front of the box.  Bending at the waist, they pick the box up by using only their elbows. They turn to the left and place the box on the “X”, turn back to the center and set the box down on the “X” in front of them, turn to the right and place the box down on the “X”, and turn back to the center, placing the box on the “X”.

Station 9 – Bunny Hop – Students criss-cross bunny hop by hopping from dot to dot, two to the right, two to the left, and landing on both feet.

Station 10 – Calf Stretch – Students stand on the balance beam with their heels on the floor and the ball of their foot on the balance beam. They raise up on their feet and back down on their heels ten times.

Station 1 – Bungee Bouncing Symbol Scotch – Hop in to the lettered squares from A to Z on the bungee bouncer.

Station 2 – Infinity Walk – Walk around the hoops taped to the floor in a figure 8 pattern.

Station 3 – Ladder Creep – Walk across the ladder with hands in the rungs and feet outside the rungs.

Station 4 – Scooter – Ride on the scooter on your stomach pushing with your hands.

Station 5 – Pincher Pop – Pop the bubble wrap using only your thumb and one other finger.

Station 6 – Spin Board – Sit on the spin board with legs crossed pushing on the floor with your hand to spin clockwise and counterclockwise.

Station 7 – Spider Web – Draw a spider web on the door by drawing a square, two diagonal lines from corner to corner, three vertical lines, and three horizontal lines.

Station 8 – Tummy Roll – Roll forward on the ball while building with the blocks.

Station 9 – Mirror, Mirror – Stand in front of the mirror while doing these brain gym movements: the owl, energy yawn, earth buttons, arm activator.

Station 10 – Ball Tap – Lay on your back on the mat, pull your knees up to your chest, raise your head and tap the ball 10 times with your toes.

It is time to change stations in the Ready Bodies Lab. Stations will change every three weeks. Station 4 and 5 are brand new to our Ready Bodies Lab.

Station 1 – Symbol Scotch – Students will hop in to each square and land with both feet. They will jump in the order of the alphabet and land facing the direction the letters are written.

Station 2 – Wall Ball – Students will lay on their back and walk the ball up and down the wall.  Students are encouraged to lift their head to watch the ball.

Station 3 – Hand Duck Walking – Students place their hands (fingers together) on the flat part of the hand duck walker.  While up on their knees, they push down from side to side to “walk” the board forward.

Station 4 – Roll Up – Students place the noodle above their knees and roll forward and back by pulling with their arms.

Station 5 – Left Hand/Right Hand Tap – Students bounce on the trampoline and tap the R and L pads on the wall by crossing over.

Station 6 – Flip and Catch – Students flip up the ball and catch it in the cup by keeping their eye on the ball.

Station 7 – Tornado – Students draw a large circle and continue spiralling around without crossing the line until they run out of room in the center.

Station 8 – Spin Board – Students sit on the spin board on their bottom with their legs crossed.  They spin clockwise and counterclockwise by pushing the floor with their hands.

Station 9 – Mirror, Mirror – Students stand in front of the mirror and do the following Brain Gym poses: thinking cap, elephant, double doodle, brain buttons.

Station 10 – Baton Pass – Students walk toward each other on the balance beam and pass the baton from the outside hand to the outside hand.

Students have been back in school for three days, and they know the procedures so well, it seems like we were not even gone for summer vacation.  The kindergarten classes are quickly learning the routine for Ready Bodies as well…I am so proud of them.  Below you will find the stations we are using for the next several weeks.  Three of the stations are brand new to White Oak.

Station 1 – Balance Beam – The student will walk across the balance beam one foot in front of the other. The second time across, the student will stand sideways and cross one foot over the other.

Station 2 – Trampoline – Students will step on to the trampoline and jump with feet together for a count of 20.  Kindergarten will jump for a count of 10.

Station 3 – Wand Toss – Students will hold the wand in one hand on the colored tape.  The wand is marked with green tape in the center, red tape 2 inches from one end, and blue tape 2 inches from the other end.  The student will toss the wand up and catch in on the color tape of their choice.

Station 4 – Ladder Activity – Students will walk three steps forward and two steps back through the rungs of the ladder.  Kindergarten will step carefully through the ladder without touching the rungs or sides.

Station 5 – Hoola Hoop – Students will stand on the colored square and twirl the hoola hoop around their waste.

Station 6 – Ball Bounce – Students will bounce and catch the ball while standing still with the ball bouncing on the blue square in front of them.

Station 7 – Board Work – Students will stand on the footprints in front of the board. With their marker in one hand and their other hand at their side, they will do a “jumping rainbow” by moving the marker from one side of the board to the other creating an arch.

Station 8 – Spin Board – Students will sit on the spin board on their bottom and criss cross their legs. They will push with one hand on the floor. They will spin in one direction 10 times and spin in the opposite direction 10 times.

Station 9 – Mirror, Mirror – Students will stand in front of the mirror.  They will assume the position as shown on the paper hung on the wall of the four brain gym movements: hook-ups, lunge, grounder, cross crawls.

Station 10 – Swim and Dry – Students will lay on the mat flat on their belly. They will pull themselves across the mat using their knees and elbows.  When they get off the end, they will “dry” their arms and legs.

With just one full week of school left, these will be the last stations our students experience this year.

Station 1 – Hand Duck Walking – Students placed their hands on the flat part of the board.   While on their knees, students “waddle” across the floor from blue line to blue while pushing down to the left and then to the right.  Students are not to just scoot the board across the floor.  The left to right motion provides proprioceptive input to their brain.

Station 2 – Alphabet Symbol Scotch – Students hop in to each square and land with both feet while turning their body to face the direction of the letters.  They begin with letter A,B and proceed in alphabetical order.  They have to create a motor plan to know which square to jump in next and what direction to turn their body.

Station 3 – Teamster Trekkers – Students must cooperate to walk on the teamster trekkers from station 3 to the back wall and back.

Station 4 – Scooter Paddling – Students sit at the back of one scooter and place their feet on the front scooter while using the paddles to propel themselves around the letters of the alphabet marked on the floor.

Station 5 – Spin Board – Students sit on the spin board with their legs crossed and push themselves  10 times to the right and 10 times to the left.

Station 6 – Hoola Hoop – Students stand on one of the colored squares in the center of the letters and hoola hoop around their waste.

Station 7 – Balance Board – Students sit on the balance board with their legs crossed and toss and catch the beanbag to each other.

Station 8 –Bungee Bouncers – Students hop on the bungee bouncers making sure to stay out of the way of other stations.

Station 9 – Alphabet 8s – Students draw two complete figure 8s and then the letter K three times.  They repeat with the letter l.

Station 10 – Obstacle Course – Students crawl in to the red barrel and do a forward flip on to the mat or crawl out of the barrel and roll off the mat.  They will duck under the 3 arches before returning to the barrel.  Students should be careful not to enter the barrel until their classmate is off the mat.