• 40 brain breaks

3rd Grade Brain Breaks With a Step Up for Grades 4 and 5

One press brings up an elementary classroom activity, marked for grades 2 and 3, grades 4 and 5 or both.

3rd Grade Brain Breaks With a Step Up for Grades 4 and 5

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  1. One pencil, two hands2 minutes. Partners hold one pencil together and draw a house with a door, 2 windows and a tree beside it. No talking. When the house is done, sign it with both names, still holding the pencil together.

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All 40 brain breaks

Whole-class games 11

  • Board relay 5 minutes. Split the class into 4 teams, each with a column on the board and one marker. Give a category, such as things in a kitchen. One at a time, walk to the board, write one word in your column, walk back and hand the marker on. Stop after 4 minutes and count the words that are spelled right and not repeated.
  • Captain's orders 2 minutes. Everyone stands facing the board, which is the bow, the front of the ship. Call an order and the crew acts: port, point left with both arms; starboard, point right; scrub the deck, crouch and scrub; climb the rigging, climb on the spot; captain's coming, stand tall and salute. Nobody is out. Port really is the left side of a ship for someone facing the bow.
  • Compass jumps 1 minute. Call the wall with the board north. Facing it, east is the wall on your right, west is on your left and south is behind you. Everyone jumps to face the direction you call. Speed up. Grades 4 and 5 add northeast, southeast, southwest and northwest, each halfway between two walls.
  • Four corners 3 minutes. Number the corners of the room 1 to 4. One student stands in the middle with eyes closed and counts down from 10 while everyone else walks quietly to a corner. The counter calls a number, and everyone in that corner sits down at their desk and joins in the next countdown. Whoever is still standing when the timer ends wins.
  • Freeze-frame a scene 5 minutes. Groups of 3 or 4 get 2 minutes to build a frozen picture of one moment from the book the class is reading, or from history or science. Nobody in the picture moves or speaks. Each group holds its scene for 5 seconds while the others guess the moment.
  • Fruit salad seat swap 2 minutes. Go around the room naming each student apple, banana or orange in turn. Call a fruit, and everyone with that fruit walks to a different empty seat. Call fruit salad and everybody moves. The last call is always home, which sends everyone back to their own seat.
  • Hot eraser 1 minute. Tick Sound and start the timer at 1 min. Pass a board eraser from hand to hand along the rows, never thrown and never skipped. Whoever is holding it when the tone sounds takes a bow and gets to press Pick another brain break next time.
  • Human machine 3 minutes. Work one row at a time. The first person starts a repeating move with a sound, like a piston. One by one, the others add a part that fits with the move before it, without touching. When every part is running, call faster, slower and power off. Then the next row builds a new machine.
  • Silent line-up by birthday month 3 minutes. Without a word, line up in order of birthday month, January by the door and December at the far end. Fingers may show numbers, but mouths stay closed. Two people with the same month sort by day. Check by saying the birthdays aloud down the line. Grade 2 can line up by the first letter of their first name instead.
  • Spell it round the room 3 minutes. Everyone stands, and you say a word from this week's spelling list. Going down the rows, each person gives the next letter. A wrong letter starts the word again with the next person, and nobody sits out. After the last letter, the next person says the whole word and the class claps once.
  • Whisper down the row 3 minutes. Whisper a sentence of about 8 words to the first person in each row, once only. It travels to the back, one whisper each and no repeats. The last person in each row says aloud what arrived, then you read out the real sentence. A sentence about today's lesson works well.

Partner challenges 10

  • Air spelling, side by side 2 minutes. One partner writes a spelling word in the air with an elbow for a pen, in letters as tall as they can reach. The other reads it and says the word. Stand side by side, not face to face, or every letter looks backwards to the reader. Swap after each word.
  • Dots and boxes 5 minutes. Draw 4 rows of 4 dots. Take turns joining two dots that sit next to each other with a straight line, across or down. Draw the fourth side of a box and you write your initial inside it and go again. The grid makes 9 boxes, so there is never a tie.
  • Marker drop catch 1 minute. One partner holds a capped marker upright by its top, over the desk. The other holds an open hand around the bottom end without touching it. The marker is dropped with no warning, and the catcher closes the hand before it lands on the desk. Take 5 drops each, then swap.
  • Mirror a partner 1 minute. Face a partner. One leads slow moves with arms, hands and face, and the other copies like a mirror. At 30 seconds, call switch. Slow is the secret: the best pairs make it hard to tell who is leading.
  • No yes, no no 2 minutes. One partner asks questions for 30 seconds, about food, animals and school only. The other answers each one truthfully without saying yes or no, and without a nod or a shake of the head. Say either word and the turn is over. Swap, and see who lasts longer.
  • One pencil, two hands 2 minutes. Partners hold one pencil together and draw a house with a door, 2 windows and a tree beside it. No talking. When the house is done, sign it with both names, still holding the pencil together.
  • Same word on three 2 minutes. Count one, two, three and each say any word at the same moment. Say you got sun and cold. Count again and both say a word that links the two, maybe winter. Keep going until you both say the same word. No word may be used twice.
  • Sketch and guess 2 minutes. One partner picks a word from the word wall or the spelling list and draws it. No letters, no numbers and no talking. The other guesses. Take 30 seconds a word, then swap jobs. Count how many words the pair gets.
  • Tap a tune 2 minutes. Think of a tune everyone in the room knows and tap its rhythm on the desk with one finger. Your partner gets 3 guesses, then you swap. It is harder than it sounds: the tapper hears the whole tune inside their head and the guesser hears only knocks.
  • Toe tap partners 1 minute. Face a partner. Tap right toes together, tap left toes together, then jump and clap your own hands. Repeat the pattern and count how many rounds you get before a wrong foot. Start again and beat your count.

Move at your desk 8

  • Notebook on your head 1 minute. Balance a notebook flat on your head and let go. Stand up, turn all the way around, touch your desk with one finger and sit down again without the notebook falling. Too easy? Pick a pencil up off the floor on the way.
  • Noun, verb, adjective 2 minutes. Call one word at a time: for a noun, touch something near you; for a verb, run on the spot; for an adjective, freeze in a pose. Start with river, arrive, soggy, kitchen, forget and enormous. Then try paint and jump: either move is right for anyone who can put the word in a sentence that way.
  • Punctuation moves 2 minutes. Give every mark a move: a period is a stomp, a comma is a clap, a question mark is a shrug and an exclamation mark is a jump. Read a paragraph aloud slowly. The class stands, listens for each mark in your voice and makes its move. Then a student reads, and you join in.
  • Seated sprint 1 minute. Sit on the front edge of your chair and hold the sides of the seat. Run with your feet as fast as you can, toes tapping the floor lightly, for 10 seconds. Rest for 10. Do 3 sprints, and make the last one the fastest.
  • Stick the landing 1 minute. Stand one big step clear of your chair and desk. Jump straight up, land with bent knees and no sound, and hold still for 3 seconds like a gymnast. Do 5 jumps. Grades 4 and 5 add a quarter turn in the air, then a half turn, and still have to hold the landing.
  • Tightrope walk 1 minute. Find a straight line on the floor, such as the edge of a tile or the rug. Walk it heel to toe with your arms out, 10 steps forward and 10 steps back. Step off the line and you start again. On the second try, carry an eraser on the back of each hand.
  • Up on the word 2 minutes. Choose a common word, such as the or and. Everyone starts sitting down. Read a page of the class book aloud. Every time the word comes up, whoever is sitting stands and whoever is standing sits. Read the second half a little faster.
  • Vowel squats 1 minute. Spell a word aloud together, one letter at a time. Jump on every consonant and squat on every vowel. The word because takes 3 jumps and 4 squats. Spell 4 or 5 words from this week's list.

Words, riddles and drawing 11

  • Bird's-eye view 3 minutes. Draw your desk the way a bird on the ceiling would see it. Every object becomes its outline from above: a pencil is a thin rectangle, a water bottle is a circle. Grades 4 and 5 can map the whole classroom instead, with the door, the windows and the board marked.
  • Keep the beat, name one 2 minutes. Set a slow beat as a class: pat your knees twice, clap twice. Pick a category, such as fruit. Going down the rows, each person names one on the claps, with no repeats. When someone misses the beat, change the category and carry on from the next person. Keep the beat slow enough to be kind.
  • Memory chain: the suitcase 3 minutes. Work in rows. The first person says: I packed my suitcase and in it I put a toothbrush. The next repeats that and adds one thing, and so on down the row. If someone is stuck, the row may mime hints but not speak. Grades 4 and 5 pack in alphabet order: an atlas, a banana, a comb.
  • Picture-word puzzles 3 minutes. Draw a puzzle on a whiteboard in which the position of the words gives the answer. STAND written above I is I understand. HEAD above HEELS is head over heels. MAN above BOARD is man overboard. Tables solve them, then invent one and try it on the class.
  • Rhyme pair riddles 2 minutes. Read a clue whose answer is two words that rhyme. A chilly place to swim is a cool pool. A home for a rodent is a mouse house. A large hog is a big pig, and an unhappy father is a sad dad. Tables whisper the answer together, then write a clue of their own.
  • Riddle for the table 2 minutes. Read one riddle and give each table 30 seconds to agree on an answer in whispers. Three to start with: what has hands but cannot clap (a clock), what gets wetter the more it dries (a towel), and what has a neck but no head (a bottle). Tables that already know it keep a straight face and let the others think.
  • Same-letter sentence 2 minutes. With a partner, write a sentence of 5 words or more in which every word starts with the same letter, such as Six silly seals sell sandwiches. It has to make some kind of sense. S, B and T are kind letters to start with. The longest sentence at each table is read aloud.
  • Secret rule picnic 3 minutes. Say: I am going on a picnic and I am bringing apples. You have a secret rule, such as every word must have a double letter. Students offer things to bring and you answer yes or no: cheese yes, bread no, jelly yes, grapes no. Anyone who thinks they know the rule tests it with a new word and keeps the rule to themselves.
  • Tear a shape behind your back 2 minutes. Hold a piece of scrap paper behind your back and tear it into a star with 5 points. No peeking. After 1 minute, everyone holds up their star at the same time. Try a fish next, then put the scraps in the recycling bin.
  • Three-panel comic 5 minutes. Draw 3 boxes in a row. Tell something that happened today as a comic with a beginning, a middle and an end. Stick figures are fine, and each panel gets one speech bubble at most. Swap with a neighbor and read theirs.
  • Wall word hunt 1 minute. Stay in your seat and search the classroom walls with your eyes. Find a word with a double letter, a word of 10 letters or more, a number bigger than 100 and a word that starts and ends with the same letter. Point when you have all 4. Change the list the next time this one comes up.

How it works

These 3rd grade brain breaks are 40 elementary classroom activities of 1 to 5 minutes. Third grade sits in the middle: 16 suit every grade, 12 lean younger, 12 lean older. Press Pick another brain break for the next one.

Read the full guide

Third grade brain breaks, sorted by setup and by grade

The menu that reads All brain breaks sorts by setup, from Whole-class games to Move at your desk, and by grade. Grades 2 and 3 and Grades 4 and 5 mark 28 each: the 16 that suit everyone plus 12 of their own.

4th grade brain breaks need a harder rule, not a new game

Several lines end with a step up. Compass jumps adds northeast and southwest, Stick the landing adds a half turn in the air, and Memory chain: the suitcase packs in alphabet order. That is how one list keeps working when your third graders become 4th graders.

  • The timer button over each result is already set to its length. Press it; it stops at zero.
  • Spell it round the room and Vowel squats need words: see the 3rd grade spelling words.

Questions and answers

Do these work as 5th grade brain breaks?

Yes. Choose Grades 4 and 5 in the menu. Brain breaks for 5th graders cannot feel babyish, so that group drops Captain's orders and Toe tap partners and keeps Secret rule picnic, Same word on three and Picture-word puzzles.

How long should brain breaks for 3rd grade last?

Short enough that the lesson is easy to pick up again. Here 11 last 1 minute, 16 last 2, 9 last 3 and only 4 run to 5. Keep the long ones, such as Board relay and Three-panel comic, for the end of the day.

Is anyone ever out in these games?

Rarely, and never for long. A wrong letter in Spell it round the room restarts the word and the speller stays in. Captain's orders has no out at all. In Four corners a called corner sits down but joins the next countdown.

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