• 33 brain breaks
  • Checked October 2026

Animal Brain Breaks

Press Pick another brain break for one animal themed brain break: a walk, a stretch or a guessing game.

Animal Brain Breaks

Show all 33
  1. Rooster at sunrise30 seconds. Stand with your feet together. Push your chest forward, pull your elbows back as wings and lift your chin to the sky. Hold for a count of 3 and crow without a sound. Let your wings drop. The sun comes up 4 times.

Next step Pick the next leaderSee the lists by age and season

All 33 brain breaks

Safari walks 9

  • Crocodile snaps 1 minute. Hold both arms straight out in front, one above the other, as long jaws. Open them slowly as wide as they go, top arm up and bottom arm down, then snap them shut with one clap. Make 10 slow snaps. Swap which arm is on top and make 10 more.
  • Giraffe walk 1 minute. A giraffe walks by moving both legs on one side, then both on the other. Try it on the spot: your right arm swings forward with your right foot, then your left arm with your left foot. Take 20 slow steps with your neck stretched tall. Then walk the usual way for 10 steps and feel the difference.
  • Gorilla sway 1 minute. Bend your knees, lean forward a little and let your arms hang long and loose. Sway from one foot to the other 10 times, swinging your arms with you. Stand up tall, pat your chest gently with flat hands 5 times and sink back down for 10 more sways.
  • Hippo in the river 1 minute. A hippo's eyes and ears stay above the water. Wade on the spot through a deep river with slow, heavy, high steps. When the teacher says under, sink down until your chin is level with your desk top, so that only your eyes and ears show. When the teacher says up, wade again.
  • Lion prowl 1 minute. Stand behind your chair and prowl on the spot with slow, soft, bent-knee steps, shoulders rolling. When the teacher says roar, open your mouth as wide as it goes without a sound and hold it for a count of 3. Prowl again. The quietest pride wins.
  • Meerkat lookout 1 minute. Some meerkats stand guard while the others dig. Crouch down and dig with both hands. When the teacher says lookout, stand tall on your tiptoes with your hands held at your chest and look left, right and behind. When the teacher says hawk, drop into your burrow.
  • Monkey in the branches 1 minute. Reach one hand up high for a branch, then the other, and swing along on the spot for 10 reaches. Stop to scratch the top of your head with one hand and your side with the other. Then pick a pretend banana from above, peel it in 3 pulls and take a bite.
  • Ostrich strides 1 minute. Fold your hands behind your back as tail feathers and stretch your neck tall. Take the longest, highest steps you can on the spot, 20 in all, lifting each knee to hip height. On the last one, tuck your head down toward your chest and stay there for a count of 5.
  • Zebra herd 1 minute. The class is a herd of zebras trotting on the spot with high, light knees. When the teacher says lion, every zebra stands perfectly still. When the teacher says gone, trot again. Any zebra who twitches trots twice as fast in the next round.

Birds and reptiles 5

  • Eagle glide 2 minutes. Spread your arms wide and walk slowly around the room without touching a desk or another eagle. Tip one wing down to turn. When the teacher says land, glide to the nearest empty chair and perch on the front of it with your wings folded. The last call sends each eagle back to its own nest.
  • Geese in a V 2 minutes. In groups of about five, stand in a V: one goose at the point and the others in two lines behind it, arms out as wings. Walk 8 slow steps together and keep the shape. On the teacher's clap, every goose turns to face the back wall. Without talking, become a V that points the new way, then walk 8 steps home.
  • Hatching chick 1 minute. Curl up small beside your desk, an egg with its arms around its knees. Tap the shell with your nose 5 times. Push one elbow out, then the other, then stand on wobbly legs. Shake your feathers dry from your head down to your feet and take 3 first steps.
  • Lizard on a wall 1 minute. Run, then stop, like a lizard on a warm wall. Take quick tiny steps on the spot for a count of 3, then freeze flat with your hands spread wide in the air like feet on a wall. Only your eyes may move. The teacher changes how long each freeze lasts, so watch for the signal.
  • Snake through the grass 2 minutes. The class lines up one behind the other as a long snake, with nobody touching. The head leads the snake in slow curves between the desks, and each part follows the same path. The only sound is a quiet hiss. On a clap, the head goes to the tail and a new head leads.

Animal stretches 10

  • Hummingbird hover 30 seconds. Stand on your tiptoes with your elbows tucked in. Beat your hands in a blur while the class counts to 5, and try to stay up on your toes the whole time. Then perch: heels down, wings still, for a count of 5. Hover 3 times.
  • Lion yawn 30 seconds. Sit back in your chair. Stretch both arms up and out with your fingers spread as claws, open your mouth as wide as it goes and make a huge yawn with no sound. Bring your arms down and settle. Yawn 3 times, each one bigger and slower.
  • Lobster claws 30 seconds. Hold both arms out in front. Open your hands as wide as they go, then pinch your fingers and thumbs shut, 10 times. Do 10 more pinches with your claws above your head and 10 with your arms out to the sides. Shake your claws loose.
  • Octopus arms 1 minute. Stand and float both arms out to the sides, as soft as the arms of an octopus. Ripple them slowly from shoulder to fingertip, 8 ripples. Float them up over your head for 8 more, then out in front for 8. Finish by letting them sink to your sides.
  • Peacock fan 1 minute. Stand with your arms by your sides and your fingers spread. Sweep both arms slowly out and up until your hands are high above your head, a tail opening. Hold it for a count of 5 and turn once on the spot to show it off. Fold the tail down slowly. Open it 3 times.
  • Rising snake 1 minute. Crouch low with your palms pressed together in front of your chest. Rise up as slowly as you can, pushing your hands toward the ceiling and wiggling from side to side all the way. At the top, stretch long and thin for a count of 3. Sink back down the same way.
  • Rooster at sunrise 30 seconds. Stand with your feet together. Push your chest forward, pull your elbows back as wings and lift your chin to the sky. Hold for a count of 3 and crow without a sound. Let your wings drop. The sun comes up 4 times.
  • Sloth climb 1 minute. A pretend branch hangs high above you. Reach one arm up to it so slowly that it takes a whole count of 10 to get there, and close your fingers around it. Reach the other arm up just as slowly. Hang there for a count of 5, then let go one hand at a time.
  • Starfish and clam 1 minute. When the teacher says starfish, stand with your feet wide and your arms out and stretch all five points, with your head as the fifth. When the teacher says clam, crouch and close up tight with your arms around your knees. Hold each shape for a count of 5. Do 4 of each.
  • Turtle in, turtle out 1 minute. Sit or stand tall. Pull your shoulders up to your ears and tuck your chin, a turtle going into its shell, and hold for a count of 3. Then send your head out slowly, with a long neck and your shoulders low. Go in and out 5 times, each one slower than the last.

Guessing games 5

  • Bee dance 3 minutes. A honey bee dances to tell the hive where the flowers are. One child secretly chooses something in the room as the flower. Without a word, the bee waggles in a short line toward it, turns back and waggles the same line again, 3 times. The hive points to where the flower is, and whoever is right dances next.
  • Feeding time 3 minutes. One child shows how an animal eats, without a sound and without walking anywhere: a hen pecking, a squirrel nibbling, a cow chewing, an anteater licking. The class watches for a count of 5 before hands go up. Whoever names the animal feeds next.
  • Find your herd 3 minutes. The teacher names three animals, such as cow, duck and sheep. Each child secretly picks one. On go, everyone walks around making only that animal's sound, quietly, and gathers with the others making the same sound. When three herds have formed, sit down together. Play again with three new animals.
  • Flies, swims or walks? 2 minutes. The teacher names an animal, and the class shows how it mostly gets around: flap for flies, front crawl for swims, march for walks. Start with eagle, shark, horse, bee, whale and camel. Then a child names the animal, and the teacher has to do the move.
  • Hand zoo 2 minutes. Make an animal with nothing but your hands. Link your thumbs and flap for a bird, hold two fingers up behind a fist for a rabbit, or press your wrists together and open your palms for a crocodile. Show a neighbor, who guesses it. Then invent one that nobody has shown you.

At your desk 4

  • Design a zoo 5 minutes. Draw a map of a small zoo on scrap paper: a gate, a path and 4 homes for 4 animals you choose. Give each animal what it needs, such as water, shade, sand or something to climb. Mark the spot where a visitor gets the best view. Explain your map to a neighbor.
  • Pencil beak 2 minutes. Scrunch a scrap of paper into a seed the size of a marble. Hold two pencils in one hand as a beak, pick the seed up with the tips and carry it from one side of your desk to the other. Count how many trips you make before the teacher says stop. Then try your other hand.
  • Tail first 3 minutes. Think of an animal and draw only its tail. Your neighbor gets one guess. Add the back legs for a second guess, then the body, then the ears. The head goes on last. Count how many parts it took, then swap, and the neighbor draws.
  • Whose tracks? 3 minutes. On scrap paper, draw the trail an animal would leave across mud: two rows of paw prints, the forked prints of a bird, one long wavy line, round hoof marks. Draw it without the animal. Swap with a neighbor and write under their trail who you think walked there.

How it works

These animal brain breaks are activities to read and do, with no video: pretend walks, stretches and guessing games. Each line says what the class does, and scrap paper and pencils are the only supplies.

Read the full guide

Walks to get up, stretches to sit down

Each press brings one activity. Its line says how the animal moves, the counts and when to stop, so it can be read straight to the class. The timer over it runs for that length. A walk gets a class out of its chairs; Sloth climb and Lion yawn are the slow ones.

Safari brain breaks and one for the zoo

A menu that reads All brain breaks filters the list. Safari walks runs from Lion prowl to Meerkat lookout, each done on the spot. For a zoo brain break at a table, choose At your desk: Design a zoo takes 5 minutes and scrap paper.

  • Find your herd is the loud one. Follow it with Turtle in, turtle out or Sloth climb.

Questions and answers

What are some animal pretend brain break ideas?

Lion prowl, Hippo in the river, Hatching chick and Sloth climb are four. In each, the class pretends to be one animal, and the line says exactly what to do, so a substitute can read it aloud.

Which animal brain breaks work in a crowded room?

Animal stretches. Every one is done at your own place, sitting or standing: Peacock fan, Lion yawn, Lobster claws, Hummingbird hover. Eagle glide, Geese in a V and Snake through the grass need room to walk between desks.

Are the animal facts checked?

Yes. Five lines lean on a fact: how a giraffe walks, meerkats on guard, a hippo's eyes and ears above the water, the honey bee's dance and geese in a V. Each was read on Wikipedia on October 3, 2026; links are under the list.

More tools

Show 6 more

Browse Classroom Management