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Practical Activities in Mathematics

GAIM Materials from 1990's which was a scheme which actively encouraged teaching and learning through practical problem solving and investigations now available free - Click here

Brain Gym Ideas

Brain Gym: Teacher's Edition Revised Paul Dennison 1994, Educational Kinesiology Foundation, ISBN 0942143027 Accelerated Learning in the Classroom by Alistair Smith ISBN Number 1-85539-034-5 Brain Gym Activities from The ALPS approach - Accelerated Learning in Primary Schools by Alistair Smith and Nicola Call (ISBN 1 85539 056 6) Wide range of resources on the TES website: Click here www.braingym.org.uk/ - access to Brain Gym resources. PowerPoint with Some Ideas
Stand in the middle the room with all of the students around the outside facing you. Throw them a soft ball and tell them to catch it or drop it – they have to do the opposite, if the don’t they sit down.
Pair them up and get them to count to 3 (alternating so 1 2 3 1 2 etc. ) as quickly as possible. They will find this surprisingly difficult at first. When they can do this quickly, add another instruction e.g. nod your head when you say '3'.
Count from 1 to a reasonable number; eg: 30. When a multiple of five, left arm & left leg out to the side...if a multiple of three... right arm, right leg to the side...if a multiple of 3 and 5 both both arms and legs out to the side (matchstick man jump I hope that makes sense !) Speed it up - slow down as needed.
Students stand up with arm out in front of them and with feet shoulder width apart, tell them to turn around as far as they can (without moving their feet) and and remember the point on the wall they got to. Then get them to close their eyes and imagine doing the same thing but getting past the point they reached. Now quickly, get them to open their eyes and repeat the turning and they always get past their original point. Tell them that in a similar way, passing or failing is a state of mind and send them off thinking positively.
Display a sequence of numbers and underneath the numbers you have L, R or T (left, right, together). For example 2 4 6 8 10 L R R T L Students say the numbers out loud and at the same time raise up either their left, right or both hands. That is the hand they raise up corresponds to the letter under the number.
Pupils standing up. When you say go they run on the spot and when you say stop they stop. Practise this a few times then add in when you say jump they jump and when you say clap they clap. Practise with all four instructions randomly for a short time and then say "when I say stop you go and when I say go you stop. When I say jump you clap and when I say clap you jump" (so they are doing the reverse of what you say. You can add any other actions you wish to this eg cold (shivering), hot (fanning themselves).
I use spot running (counting to ten), jumping jacks (counting to ten), one arm bent back behind the shoulder touching the other arm bent upwards, bend down to touch toes …