More Brain Breaks - True/False, Heads/Tails, & Life or Death

Here are some more quick, fun brain breaks which can be done in the target language.

1. True/False

1. Have students stand up.
2. Explain to students that you are going to read a statement. 
3. If students think that the statement is true, they are put their hands on their heads.
4. If students think that the statement is false, they are to stretch their hands to their sides (like a T).
5. Reveal if the statement is true or false.
6. If students get the answer incorrect, they are to sit down.
7. Do another true/false statement, repeating steps 3-6.
8. See who is left standing, and do a 3rd statement if desired.

Some statements:

• There are more trees on earth than in the Milky Way (TRUE - there are 3.04 trillion trees

vs. 400 billion stars)

• It takes seven years for your body to digest gum (FALSE - it is digested like normal food)
• Mickey Mouse’s full name is Michael Theodore Mouse (TRUE)
• The most popular sold item at Walmart is shampoo (FALSE - it is bananas)
• Dogs are banned on Antarctica (TRUE)
• Mickey Mouse was originally supposed to be a rabbit (TRUE)
• Sunsets on Mars are blue (TRUE)
• In Alaska, it is illegal to shove a moose into a movie theater (FALSE)
• You can actually charge your smartphone using static electricity from your hair (FALSE)
• No two tongue prints are the same (TRUE)
• Hello Kitty’s real name is Tammy Sue (FALSE)

2. Heads/Tails

1. Have students stand up
2. Take out a coin, and tell students that they need to predict if the coin will land heads or tails. 
3. If they think that it will be heads, they will put their hands on their heads. 
4. If students think that they it will be tails, they will put their hands on their bottoms.
5. Flip a coin.
6. Depending on the coin toss, whatever students who incorrectly predicted will sit down.
7. Repeat again three more times.

3. Life or Death (I got this one from Miriam Patrick, who in turn got this from Andrew Snider)

1. Make a statement, and ask students if this is a life or death situation.
2. Continue adding details to the statement, and ask students if this changes the situation to life or death.

Some statements

1. Rhoda is in the kitchen.
2. There are lions in the kitchen with Rhoda.
3. The lions are starving.
4. The lions are sleeping.
5. Rhoda runs out of the kitchen.
6. Rhoda steps on the lions' tails.
7. The lions do not wake up.
8. An asteroid then hits Rhoda.

Observations

1. I like doing these brain breaks in the target language, because it requires students to listen. Depending on the level of your students, it may be necessary to do True/False in English.
2. I have found that students get very competitive with the True/False and Heads/Tails brain breaks.
3. An administrator came to observe me when I was doing a True/False brain break, and I made her participate. She was so impressed that she now wants the Special Education teachers to observe our Latin department, because she wants them to start using brain breaks in their lessons.