We are pleased to report that Brain Breaks, our exercise DVD, has been used in over 400 classrooms throughout Oregon over the last year. In order to assess the quality and usefulness of Brain Breaks, we asked teachers to complete a two-page questionnaire. Of all the respondents - kindergarten through fifth grade, special education, and physical education teachers (Figure 1) – 43 percent indicated that the exercise activities are fun and 53 percent said they are very useful (Figure 2). 

Figure 1

brain breaks grade

Figure 2

activity segments

Approximately half of the teachers (46.81%) reported that they play the DVD two to three times per week; over 20 percent (21.28%) said they used it once per day and almost 24 percent (23.4%) indicated they play it once per week (Figure 3). 

Figure 3

dvd frequency

Nearly all teachers (89.4%) indicated that the exercise segments fit well into their class schedules and the most popular exercise segments seem to be those on Stretching & Relaxation (59.57 %) (Figure 4). 

Figure 4

dvd type

Almost all the teachers indicated that their students responded adequately (31.91%) or extremely well (65.96%) to the exercise instructions provided on the DVD (Figure 5). 

Figure 5

understands instructions

Since almost all the teachers (91.5%) reported that they will continue using Brain Breaks in their classrooms, we plan to produce a second edition of Brain Breaks this school year. We hope to have Brain Breaks 2 ready for release July 2014.