Pinterest Pick w/ Brain Gym Giveaway!!

This week's "Pinterest Pick of the Week" is a bucket of activity sticks!  Each stick has a quick movement activity you can give students to do to stay focused and keep energized during lessons or as transitions between activities.  

Pin is from Miss Sullard's blog, Keep Calm and Teach On
Click on the picture to take you to her great blog!!!  

Do you know about Brain Gym?! 


I chose this pin because I was fortunate to take a workshop on Brain Gym while I student taught.  I have been hooked ever since! We all know movement is critical to keeping kids focused.  What I found most exciting was the way Brain Gym reaches their minds.   Kids who complete Brain Gym activities, or movement-based learning, develop better memories and enhance their visual, auditory, and kinesthetic skills.  


First of all, let me assure you I would never recommend a product or program I didn't truly believe in to other teachers - and definitely not one I haven't used myself. I'm a big believer that Brain Gym works.  I use it between lessons and frequently if my kids need to regain focus.  Today, my class and I completed "cross crawls," a Brain Gym exercise, while counting aloud by hundreds in math. They were moving and counting and fully engaged!

During my senior year, I completed a research project using the Brain Gym program.  Using my roommate as a guinea pig, I gave her a list of words on the first day and asked her to study them for one minute.  I took the paper away and she recited as many words as she could remember.  Over the next two weeks, we completed Brain Gym activities (just picture two college education students doing cross crawls, hook-ups, and calf pumps in our 2ft by 2ft dorm room...) and I continued to give her a random list of words each night.  After just three weeks, Katie was able to memorize far more words on the randomized lists than she had the first night.  


Since I love using Brain Gym in my own classroom and love sharing things with all of you...

 

I'm having a Brain Gym Giveaway!!

I contacted the Brain Gym company last week and they have graciously agreed to give away a Brain Gym Teacher's Edition resource book to one of my lucky followers! It is a $29.95 value and will let you and your students take off in your movement-based learning experiences!

How wonderful are they?!

The rules to this giveaway are simple:


1. Be a follower of my blog.
2. Visit the Brain Gym website by clicking the link below.
3. Leave me ONE comment that states you follow my blog AND tell me a product (other than the Teacher's Edition book) you would like to have from their store to help you implement the program if funds were not an issue. 
4. *If you blog about this giveaway on your own blog, you will receive one additional entry. (Leave a second comment that states you blogged about the giveaway with a link to your post.)

http://www.braingym.com/

The winner will be announced next Wednesday evening, April 18th!  Good luck! :) Please remember to include your e-mail address when you enter! :) 

Happy Learning,