Brain break bops

Interoception and self-regulation activities for early years

Our bodies send us signals about our emotions all the time through physical changes like our heartbeat slowing down or speeding up, our muscles tensing and our breath changing. Tapping into these changing signals and learning to understand them as emotions and/or feelings is called interoception or ‘mindful body awareness’.

Everybody’s natural interoception is different. Without good interoceptive awareness, children and young people might find it hard to notice a big emotion building up inside until it becomes overwhelming or distracts them from learning.

What are Brain break bops?

Brain break bops are interoception activities for pre-school and early primary school students.

Building interoceptive awareness (feeling more connected with your body and your bodily signals) requires students to actively notice changes in their body state. To do this, students complete a movement for thirty seconds, and pause to reflect, before completing it for a second time. Each activity has been timed to support this structure in an engaging way.

Videos

The animated videos are two-minutes long. They all feature an interoception movement, plus other fun dance moves and memorable song lyrics.

Some of the videos are calming and relaxing, while others are more energising. They include a range of positions, such as sitting, lying down, or standing up, and can be adapted to suit your classroom (for example, sitting on either a mat or a chair).

Songs

Each of the activities includes a downloadable song. Once your students are familiar with the actions, you may find that they can follow along to the song without needing the visual prompt of the video.

Posters

The activity posters show the primary interoception movement with instructions and prompting questions. You can display the posters around your classroom, or keep them in a quiet space, as a reminder for students to use the activities to emotionally self-regulate. We recommend printing posters in A3 for ease of reading the text.

Download posters

About the characters

The animated characters demonstrating the interoception activities have been adapted from Early Learning Languages Australia (ELLA). You might like to download each character's activity card, which are best printed in A6.

Download activity cards
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How to use Brain break bops in the classroom

Use the Brain break bops as best works for your class, depending on student needs, the ages of your students, as well as the time you have available for your program.

  • Interoceptive awareness is built through repeated and progressive exposure to the activities. It is most beneficial for the children to do interoception activities at least two to three times a day.
  • Sessions may be most effective scheduled mid-way through a class for a brain break, or first thing in the morning, after recess or lunch, or after a transition when students may require refocusing.
  • The activities are best introduced as a proactive tool when students are emotionally regulated, or before the signs or boredom, fatigue and emotional dysregulation set in.
  • As inclusive activities, they are great for the whole class or small groups. They can also be in one-on-one sessions or adapted to meet the abilities and needs of individual students.

Getting started

These activities can be introduced and taught in the same way that you usually introduce and teach action songs.

The first time you introduce one of the ‘Brain break bops’ to your students, just ask them to watch with no expectation that they complete any actions or sing the lyrics. Some students may need to watch the video several times before they feel comfortable joining in.

Practice the movements

  • Take some time to walk through the movements without the video playing, allowing students to practice as their own pace.
  • Reassure students that they do not have to be perfect, emphasising ‘trying’ rather than ‘doing’.
  • Once you progress to following along with the video, you might like to pause it after each segment and make sure that all students are keeping up.
  • When your students have got the hang of the activity, play the video all the way through and have some fun!

Guided noticing

You can guide students to actively notice the change in their body through prompting questions. Each activity poster includes two recommend questions, with vocabulary ideas for suggested answers:

  • Where can you feel something?
  • How does it feel?

Ask students the questions and encourage them to answer based on their own feelings and experiences. Everyone's body is unique so each child might have a different answer.

More on interoception

Visit Get ready to learn for more interoception activities, an educator guide and information for families and caregivers. 

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Let's go to the beach with Kai and Nev. In this activity, practice walking slowly and focusing on the muscles in your legs and feet.

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It's the Rocking Bug! Try to follow along with Finn and his friends. This activity involves sitting on the floor and rocking forwards and backwards, then from side to side.

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Take some time to breathe deeply in through your nose and out through your mouth.

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Help Min and her family to play their instruments and stay calm under pressure. Put your hands out in front and stretch your fingers wide.

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Buckle up everyone, we're going to space. You need a chair or a spot on the floor to get ready for bottom launch.

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Download song
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