Brain

Weeks of :  March 4 – March 15 

Theme:  Your Amazing Brain

 

     Date                   News                             Greeting             Sharing               Activity

 

Mon EF	Happy Monday! Let’s look at the week ahead… Open your planners and let’s talk about what’s coming up…	Share Greeting	n/a	Advisor guides the process of planning for the week
Tuesday a.m.	This week and next: YOUR AMAZING BRAIN. We will learn more this afternoon in the Gym about your FREAKISHLY AMAZING brains, but for now, let’s play a familiar game that replicates a little bit of how information travels in your brain.”	Ball Toss Greeting	n/a	[The greeting is also the activity.  See Note below.]
Tuesday p.m.	same	All School Greeting Game?	n/a	Full Group in Gym
Wed	What are some things we can each do to make our brains run at optimal efficiency?  Jot your ideas on the board.	Formal Greeting	Fueling Your Brain Optimally:  Group Share	n/a
Thursday				n/a
Friday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, EF

 

News:      Happy Monday!  Let’s look at the week ahead… After our Monday Greeting, let’s open your planners and talk about what’s coming up…        

 

Greeting:      [We are going to do the same greeting every Monday, so that you all know where to start on Mondays without having to rush to check your Bulletin.  Mondays will be systematized for an easier flow.]

Share Greeting:    “How was your weekend?” – Advisor starts by greeting an advisee by name and asking, “How was your weekend?”  Advisees practice the “Expand and Ricochet” social skill by replying “It was good/lousy/meh, I ____________________.  How was your weekend, (another advisee)?”

 

 

Activity:  Note to Advisors:  As we help our middle-schoolers “wire” their pre-frontal cortexes with EF Skills, one way to do this is to wire their “planning and organization” sections by teaching them to “think ahead” and mentally visualize the events and demands of their week.

Ask everyone to open their planners and begin to map out their week.  Circulate around the room as you guide advisees to write down quizzes, tests, project due dates, play times, game days, etc… etc…Include personal obligations too, like “Mom’s birthday dinner,” because students need to learn to plan around their social events, too.

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday,  – a.m.

 

News:               “For this week and next: YOUR AMAZING BRAIN.  We will learn more this afternoon in Rooms ________ about the way your brain works, but for now, let’s play a familiar game that replicates a little bit of how your brain works.”

 

Greeting:      Ball Toss Greeting - a soft, indoor ball or equivalent (bean bag, stuffed animal, etc…) is tossed by a selected student, who greets another student and then tosses that student the ball (safely, on-target and underhanded toss).  The recipient tosses the object to another student and greets that student.  Play continues until everyone has been greeted (including the advisor).  To emphasize the brain-based information we are teaching over the next two weeks, have each student memorize to whom he/she tosses the ball.  Play for several rounds and try to beat your time on each round (sticking to the same “neural pathway” helps).  If time allows, after getting good at throwing to the same person, ask each student to throw to the second person to the left and notice what it does to your time.  It probably will take longer and this is because the “neural pathway” that was more practiced was smoother.

 

AMAZING BRAIN FACT:  If the ball in this Ball Toss Game is the electricity in your brain that flows from cell to cell, we would have to throw the ball 260mph to be as fast as your brain!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, p.m. - 

 

Please bring advisees to gym promptly.

 

Please be prepared to co-facilitate the greeting game.

 

Please be prepared to learn this information along with the students because you will be guiding this brain unit after this group lesson.  This is the foundation that will guide activities for this week and next. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday

News:                What are some things we can each do to make our brains run at optimal efficiency?  Jot your ideas on the board.

 

Greeting:      Formal Greeting – Students need practice formally greeting adults.  A good time to remind students about our policy of “Seacrest Courtesies.”  Directions:  Students use only last names with one another, as if they were greeting an adult (Good Morning, Mr. Peel.  Good Morning, Ms. Davis).  Rather than greeting one at a time while others watch, everyone greets simultaneously to the left and to the right, waiting if a partner is greeting someone else).

 

Share:            Group Share:  “In your own experience, what fuels your brain best?” Include what the experts say (in topics of nutrition, sleep, exercise).  Do students’ opinions match the experts?  What about music? laughter?

           

 

Thursday,

News:                        

Greeting:     

Share:                        n/a

Activity:       

 

 

Friday,

News:            

Greeting:     

Share:                        n/a

Activity:        Testing out what helps you think better – concentration game first; then activity that group thinks might help concentration – activity or music then concentration game again.  check to see who did better.  Adolescents can be contrarian, so helpful to remind them that each person will have his or her own recipes for brain efficiency.  Some people very affected by one night’s poor sleep; others not as much.  Same for nutrition, music (rock or classical), etc….