Move Your Body Thumball (4")
This Thumball becomes the catalyst to get participants up and moving. This is a great quick DPA (Daily Physical Activity) or Brain Break. The rule of thumb around attention is span is that the longest amount of time our brains can focus on one activity, lesson, or idea is age plus 1 to 2 minutes. This time frame for attention maxes out at 18 minutes for a fully rested, well fed brain.
So, get those seven year olds up and moving every 8 to 9 minutes!
This Thumball would also very helpful for those individuals who need help with the fine and/or gross motor development.
Where someone’s thumb lands they need to do the motion. they could also be responsible for leading the rest of the group in that motion. This would be a wonderful tool for classroom teachers, physical education specialists, coaches, camp leaders or occupational therapists.
Adaptations could include doing the motion at varying speeds or varying the length of time doing each action.
To really work on self-regulation, have the group do the action that was directed two turns ago. Essentially, the goal is to keep moving one’s body based on what the direction was two or more turns ago. If it first says do a “karate chop” and then “dive in a swim gracefully”, everyone would have to do a “karate chop”. Once the third direction is read out-loud (i.e. “drive a race car and turn suddenly”), everyone would have to ”dive in a swim gracefully”.
