To perform a Cross Crawl, students touch their left elbows to their right knees while their right arms moves behind them, as if marching. Cross Crawls also help with comprehension, as the movement engages both halves of the brain and force them to work together. The Cross Crawl helps burn excess energy, making it easier for students to concentrate on the teacher's lesson. Students should spend about one minute drawing figure 8s before beginning an activity. The figure 8s should be drawn quickly and loosely. Drawing figure 8s with the dominant hand loosens up the muscles in the arm and wrist, and serves to ready students for writing essays.
When students use their non-dominant hand to draw the figure 8, it engages the creativity portions of the brain, making this variation a good warm-up for art or creative writing lessons. Students draw figure 8s either in the air with their fingers or on a piece of paper. (Image: Digital Vision./Photodisc/Getty Images) Figure 8s While many of the activities work best with younger students, older students and even adults can benefit from Brain Gym exercises. They are generally fun movements that are designed to engage the brain. Each exercise can be done in a small area in the classroom or at the student's seat. Brain Gym exercises are short activities teachers can do with their students to release stress, expend excess energy and enhance learning.