Have you tried using Fluency & Fitness Brain Breaks in your classroom? It’s such a fun way to practice reading and math skills, while incorporating exercise. You can use these during your literacy and math blocks, as brain breaks, during transitions, or for indoor recess. Students don’t even realize they are learning because they are having so much fun! Many classroom teachers say their students beg to do Fluency & Fitness, which makes my heart so happy!! This was my goal when I created these activities—to make learning fun again! To get more use out of your product, I wanted to show you 3 ways that I use Fluency & Fitness.
#1: PowerPoint Slideshows
Most teachers use Fluency & Fitness as a slideshow where students name what’s on the slide (letter, number, sight word, etc). When an exercise slide comes up, they do that exercise. The teacher gets to click from slide to slide, so as students learn the skills you can go slow, and once they master it, you can go faster. You can also stay on the exercise slides as long as you want this way 🙂
These kindergarteners are mastering their sight words because they use the Dolch Words Fluency & Fitness Bundle daily!
These 2nd graders are working on their math facts with the Subtraction Fluency & Fitness bundle.
Here’s a 2nd grade class doing the Place Value Fluency & Fitness bundle.
Here’s a sneak peek at students doing the Letters Fluency & Fitness. Each set of slideshows has a variety of 5 exercises for the students to do: hop on 1 foot, toe touches, jog in place, jumping jacks, and push-ups. For some reason, the kids get SO excited for the push-ups. 🙂
Here’s a peek at the Missing Numbers Bundle. If you do the Dibles Math assessments, this is a great way to practice for the missing numbers test.
I have a lot of videos of Fluency & Fitness Brain Breaks on my Youtube page, if you want to see more of these bundles in action in classrooms.
#2: Assessments
This class is working on their beginning sounds using the Sound Fluency & Fitness Bundle, but they are taking an assessment as well! As students see what’s on the screen, they write down the answer in a box. For this bundle, they write down the letter that goes with the beginning sound in the word. For math facts, they’d write down the answer to the problem. For CVC words, they could write down the vowel they see….so many possibilities! When they see the exercise kid, they get to stand up and do the exercise. Tip: You’ll need to make it double sided if you are using a slideshow that has more than 50 slides.
Simply grab the assessment sheet for FREE here.
Students won’t even realize they are taking an assessment. 🙂
#3: Literacy & Math Centers
This CVC Fluency & Fitness is going to be played as a literacy center with the slides being used as flashcards.
This is how I print the slides on my Mac.
Go to Print —>Print What—>Handouts 6 slides per page.
They may be a bit small depending on your students, so you may want to print 4 per page. I was trying to save ink. Throw them in a tub and have students pull out a card. They either say the word or do the exercise. I tell the students to do the exercise 5 times since they won’t always have a teacher in charge of how long they exercise.
What Teachers Are Saying…
“This bundle is AMAZING! My kids absolutely love practicing their skills with this fun and engaging fluency practice. This has become a staple in Math and Reading. Won’t teach again without it!” – Sofie
“This has become my favorite Tpt purchase. There is so much included in the bundle, and my students are engaged from start to finish. They can’t get enough of it, and neither can I!” – Jackie
“My students need to get their wiggles out pretty often, and they love doing Go Noodle videos, but these are taking brain breaks to the next level! I had students begging me to do the slideshow again. Thanks so much!” – Hannah
More Tips/Tricks
Some people have asked how to add timers to the Powerpoint slideshows, so they don’t have to click through each slide manually. I made a quick YouTube video showing you how to add timers easily.
Another thing people have asked for is music on the exercise slides. I cannot add music since this is a commercially sold product without having to pay artists/producers/etc. a fortune to be able to use their music. Thanks for understanding. 🙂 I have however made a video to show you how to add music/sounds for your own classroom use.
I hope you have found a few new ways to use your Fluency & Fitness activities! You can also check my TPP shop for more Fluency & Fitness activities bundle.
