How Short Breaks Are Beneficial For Kids?

15th December 2021

Essentially for kids, short breaks can work like magic. Children being prone to lose attention quickly, regular breaks throughout their school day can keep them anchored into the classroom activities. Short breaks can also increase productivity and give them more opportunity to enjoy the lesson rather than trying to drag the lesson for a longer time and they give them a giant break.

To produce such enthusiasm in the classroom shorter lessons can certainly be more effective. Many educators have now already started to use physical exercises, movements, mental practices like mindfulness and breath exercises as their classroom routines in between the lesson. This not only helps young learners feel reenergized, but it also helps them to recreate a moment for herself/himself to take a pause. International Teaching Diploma, with its 21st century teaching approach teachers how to navigate the stagnant moments in the classroom.

HOW SHORT BREAKS CAN HELP EDUCATORS PROVIDE A HEALTHY LEARNING ENVIRONMENT FOR KIDS?

REDUCes STRESs & fatigue

Including short breaks can reduce fatigue and stress in the classroom. Break keeps up with brain activity and cognitive functioning. It also enables motivation towards learning. In kids, small breaks are essentially integral not just because their attention span is short it’s because they can focus better when they feel encouraged to explore their lesson with the teacher.

INCREASES ATTENTIVENESS

Attention is one such thing about kids that remains a priority for all early childhood educators. By giving small breaks during the school day can raise the attention spans of kids. This increases attention over time allows them to develop concentration and focus within them. Thus, makes them better performers in classroom tasks as well as during exams.

SHARPENS MEMORY & COGNITIVE FUNCTION

Short breaks especially with Movement exercises in between lessons can help children to stay motivated and pay attention in the classroom. Sort physical activities also help to promote cognitive functioning with children. When kids use physical activities it increases the blood flow with the brain, boosts attention, therefore memory. As a result, kids become more adaptive to cope with stress.

BOOST CREATIVE THINKING

When kids learn to pay attention, they tend to enjoy the learning process and thus enable their creative sense to be activated. With all of these awareness, children become more open to experiencing the constant inflow of thought and use those thought to direct into their activities. Not to mention, Unstructured playtime during the lesson also creates opportunities for imaginary and creative play.

PROMOTES SOCIAL & COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Helping kids learn life skills has always been the overall goal of early childhood education. Since learning is not just about achieving the academic goal, skills such as interpersonal skills, social skills, and communications skills are essential parts of day-to-day learning. Short break activities allow children to interact with their surroundings and peer. Such social interactions during break time not only help them burn out the lethargy but also help them to indulge in activities that they enjoy the most.

FINAL WORDS

To provide a holistic learning environment to kids, each step of the lesson and how they should be explored in class needs to be determined from the perspective of how children function. Small breaks are an essential part of learning, not just for children but for adults too. Additionally, break time can also help the teacher do the classroom management better and reduce disruptive behavior effectively. Also, short breaks can benefit both learners as well as the teacher to be in the classroom calmly throughout the school day.

It is important for the kids to enjoy the learning process in an organic way, International Teaching Diploma can help teachers expand the learning experience with playful activities, games, and mindfulness. Breaks do not always need to be a proper recess, teachers can facilitate a better learning environment when they know how to channel and navigate kids energy in the right direction, not only this will help young minds to recharge their memory and physical strength, it will also help them stay focused on their learning objective.

Written By : Neha Sharma