1. Your Magical Brain How it works best

2. What you need: • A piece of paper • A pen or pencil • Your brain

3. 1. Oxygen 2. Water 3. Food What Does Your Brain Need Most?

4. 1. Oxygen • We can provide oxygen for our brains by: • Moving around (walking, stretching, exercising) • Taking deep rather than shallow breaths • Having good posture

5. Ways you can get oxygen to your brain in a classroom setting: • Deep breathing exercises, come on try it! In through the nose… • “Toe ups” to get your legs moving • Stand up, stretch out your upper body • Finger/earlobe massage • Co-ordination exercises

6. Try this… • Put your left thumb up, and point your right index finger straight ahead. Now switch.

7. 2. Water • The Brain is made of 80% water, which needs to be replenished regularly. • Drink constant sips of water • Room temperature water is better for absorption

8. 3. Food • The brain gets it’s energy from the food you eat. So give it PREMIUM fuel! • “Brain builder” foods include: • Fresh green vegetables -bananas • Fish chicken • Blueberries • Eggs • Nuts

9. Stress is BAD! • Stress and threat reduce the capacity for understanding, meaning, and memory. • Stress reduces higher order thinking skills. • If you are stressed, you will not learn!

10. The Teenage Brain

11. Biological Changes in the Teenage Brain • The frontal lobes are going through a growth process • Reason and judgment are influenced because of changes in the brain

12. Some Brain facts: • Put your fists together, that is approximately the size of your brain • The average brain weighs 3 pounds • There are over 100 billion neurons in your brain!

13. Brain exercise #1 • 1. Remember the following numbers 1 9 9 2 2 0 1 1 1 4 9 2 9 9 6 6 3 6

14. Testing time… • Try to write down the numbers in the order they appeared on the previous slide. • “chunking” them into smaller groups is a great strategy for this type of activity. • 1992 • 2011 • 1492 • 9966 • 36

15. Brain exercise #2 Remember the items on this shopping list: • spoon • Eggs • Floor cleaner • Cottonballs • marshmallows • Cereal • Orange juice • Paper • Stamps • shoes

16. Testing time… • try to write down as many of the items on the list as you can. • Creating a “story” is a good strategy to remember a list of items. • You are carrying an egg on a spoon, slip on the floor because of the cleaner, land on a pile of cottonballs and marshmallows and fall asleep. • You wake up and eat cereal and OJ. • Lastly you write a letter on paper, put a stamp on it and walk in your new shoes to mail it off.

17. Your Magical Brain assignment: • Write a response to what you have been presented in this slideshow. • You should give me YOUR thoughts and opinions, don’t just repeat what you’ve been shown. • You may choose to discuss: • Any questions you have about the info. • Whether you agree or disagree with what you’ve been shown • If you recognize the benefits or drawbacks of the things discussed in yourself. How do you feel when you don’t have enough water, food, or sleep? How does stress affect the way you think? • What methods/techniques you would be most likely to choose to improve your brain function

18. The End/Le Fin