Another great exercise by Gail and Paul Dennison helps with study skills, math, and riding in a car, bus or plane.

Neck Rolls helps to relax your neck and shoulders.  You can stand or sit while you breathe in deeply and slowly, relaxing your shoulders and dropping your head forward.  Move your head slowly from side to side, in a slow, rolling action.  Imagine breathing out any tension.  As you do this, your chin draws a smooth curve across your chest as your neck relaxes.

   more »

Thinking Caps is used to improve your ability to listen better, do public speaking, short-term memory, thinking abilities and spelling.  It also can help improve your concentration while working ont he computer.

Take your hands and place them at the top of each ear.  Using both hands, start at the top of each ear and "unroll" the curved part of the edge of the ears at the same time.  Continue moving your hands down the ear all the way to the bottom of the ear lobes.  Repeat this until you have done it three times.

   more »

This exercise helps you with centering, grounding and relaxing the nervous system.  Standing, you hold one hand tocuhing the upper lip and the other hand touching behind you, just above the tailbone.  Hold while you take three slow, deep breaths.  Reverse hands and breathe the same way for three breaths.   more »

Belly breathing improves the supply of oxygen to the blood and brain.  It helps relax you, which increases your energy level.  It will also make it easier for you to read and speak.

Standing up, place your hands on your abdomen.  exhale through your mouth in short little puffs.  Next, inhale slowly and deeply, fillling your abdomen like a balloon underneath your hands.  Slowly and fully exhale the air.  repeat this a few times, making sure you have a natural rhythmn going.

   more »

Double Doodle helps to develop writing skills, spelling and math.  It also makes it easier to be able to follow directions and improve eye-hand coordination.

Imagine a line drawn the middle of the body, from the nose to the belly button.  Put both hands up in the air and begin drawing identical doodles on each side of the line.  have some fun with it.  It gives your brain a great workout!

   more »

These simple exercises are based on the work presented by Carla Hannaford, Ph.D. . Carla Hannaford, Ph.D. is a neurophysiologist and educator with more than 28 years of teaching experience. In her best selling book "Smart Moves", Dr. Hannaford states that our bodies are very much a part of all our learning, and learning is not an isolated "brain" function. Every nerve and cell is a network contributing to our intelligence and our learning capability. Many educators have found this work quite helpful in improving overall concentration in class. Introduced here, you will find four basic "Brain Gym" exercises which implement the ideas developed in "Smart Moves" and can be used quickly in any classroom. They are surprisingly simple, but very effective!

• Drink Water

As Carla Hannaford says, "Water comprises more of the brain (with estimates of 90%) than of any other organ of the body." Having students drink some ...   more »

This exercise helps coordinate right and left brain by exercising the information flow between the two hemispheres. It is useful for spelling, writing, listening, reading and comprehension.  Its found in the Dennison's book, Brain Gym.

• Stand or sit. Put the right hand across the body to the left knee as you raise it, and then do the same thing for the left hand on the right knee just as if you were marching.
• Just do this either sitting or standing for about 2 minutes.

   more »