Enrichment for Adults

Jul 15

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Your Attention, Please!

By Tyler Belanger | Blog, Enrichment, Enrichment for Adults, Ignite! At Home, Ignite! At School, Ignite! In The Workplace, Interventions, Memory, News, Weekly Challenges, wod | No Comments

Our brains are capable of carrying out a number of attention tasks and are shaped by environmental and developmental factors. When developmental factors such as motivation, past/prior experiences and current knowledge base interact with different environmental situations our brains begin to adapt by strengthening the attention skills used most often. Simply put, how we spend our days shapes what we pay attention to and how efficiently these processes function.

Attention has two degrees “passive” (daydreaming in class) and “active” (when a teacher calls our name) and can be broken down into five types:

Normal: the act of being engaged and focused on a single task.

Selective: the act of being engaged and focused on a single task while blocking out some other stimuli.

Divided: the act of performing multiple tasks simultaneously, one passive and other active. Ie. Doing homework (active) while the television is on (passive).

Alternating: the act of shifting attention that pique interest during two separate tasks requiring active attention, happening at the same time. Ie. Overhearing a conversation while reading a book.

Concentration: the sustained act of being engaged and focused on a single task over a certain amount of time.

Enhancing Attention

Being able to recognize and then predict what attention skills will be needed to complete a task efficiently are the first steps to enhancing concentration, focus and attention. From there it’s all about practice through play.

Try out the following Attention Puzzles for time. Puzzles 1 and 2 will challenge alternating attention because it requires you to shift between letters and numbers. Starting at A draw a line to number 1, then from 1 to B and so on. Puzzles 3 and 4 will challenge alternating and selective attention by having to block out random symbols that are not relevant to the trail. Finally, Puzzle 5 will challenge a combination of all types of attention. Complete this grid by writing the coordinates beside each letter (A = R7,C4)

*Complete these puzzles after each round of a short and intense workout for maximum brain benefits!

Jan 15

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Today’s BrainWOD: “Brain Gone Bad”

By Chris | Enrichment, Enrichment for Adults, Ignite! At Home, Ignite! At School, Interventions, Math, Memory, Reading, Weekly Challenges, wod | No Comments

Warmup: 20 reps for time of:

Burpee/Push-up/Jumping-Jack/Sit-up/Handstand

Then, “Brain Gone Bad”:

Spend exactly one minute at each station before moving to the next.

Rest exactly one minute between rounds.

Perform 3 rounds for maximum points.

Station 1: Memory Cards (one minute to memorize)

Station 2: Addition Worksheet

Station 3: Subtraction Worksheet

Station 4: Word Search Worksheet

Station 5: Memory Cards – one minute to recall cards (any order.)

Worksheets can be drawn from anywhere. This is one good resource.

The Ignite NeuroMotive Coach Certification in El Paso on Saturday is almost full! You can register for both the live course and the Online course by clicking here.

Ignite BrainWODs are comprised of 7 phases (the Ignite 7 Steps.) The above can be used on its own for a fun challenge, or incorporated into the 7 Steps for optimal benefit.

The Ignite 7 Steps are outlined in Enrichment Through Exercise, and taught in our NeuroMotive Coach Certifications.

Dec 29

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Today’s BrainWOD: “Tall Tales”

By Chris | Enrichment, Enrichment for Adults, Games, Ignite! At Home, Ignite! At School, Public Speaking, wod | No Comments

Lesson: How To Tell Tall Tales

5 Things Every Presenter Needs To Know About People from Weinschenk on Vimeo.

Activity:

“Fisherman’s Friend”

In pairs, have one student sit on a mat; the other pushes her to one end of the room, then races back to the start and pulls her in with a tug-of-war rope.

When finished, the “fisherman” recounts a story of their largest catch to the rest of the group. It will be false, of course.

Ages 3-6: One push, one pull, <1 minute speech

Ages 7-10: 2-3 pushes/pulls, <2 minute speech

Ages 11-16: 3+ pushes/pulls, <3 minute speech

Adults: 1 push/pull, 1 minute speaking, 5 rounds.

Dec 26

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Today’s BrainWOD: “Look Who’s Talking”

By Chris | Enrichment, Enrichment for Adults, Public Speaking, wod | No Comments

With a partner or a team, one student does 20 squats while holding a medicine ball. They must keep up a narrative story while squatting. Then their partner takes their turn while the first student rests. Both students tell different stories. The goal is for both students to achieve 5 rounds for 20 squats while telling their story; if they run out of narrative, they’re out.

To increase difficulty:

Hold the ball overhead while squatting
Squat on one leg
Ban the word ‘and’
Increase the number of rounds
Use a story created by the students.

Dec 24

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Today’s BrainWOD: “Make The Hundred”

By Chris | Enrichment for Adults, Games, Ignite! At Home, Ignite! At School, Math, wod | No Comments

Warmup: 4 X
10 Side to Side hop over small barrier =>10 Sprawls => 25 M Sprint => 25 M Back pedal

Recite 1-10 multiplication tables as far as possible without interruption

In any order, perform:

100 squats

100 situps

100 pushups

100 lunges

without rest, complete:

1 a.	____ + 83 = 100

1 b.	11 + ____ = 100

2 a.	1 + ____ = 100

2 b.	____ + 15 = 100

3 a.	____ + 40 = 100

3 b.	____ + 50 = 100

4 a.	71 + ____ = 100

4 b.	____ + 95 = 100

5 a.	54 + ____ = 100

5 b.	____ + 71 = 100

6 a.	____ + 52 = 100

6 b.	64 + ____ = 100

7 a.	75 + ____ = 100

7 b.	83 + ____ = 100

8 a.	32 + ____ = 100

8 b.	____ + 44 = 100

9 a.	62 + ____ = 100

9 b.	____ + 29 = 100

10 a.

12 + ____ = 100

10 b.

____ + 35 = 100

Scaling Options: Decrease the number of reps (“Make The Twenty” or “Make The Fifty”)

Change addition to multiplication

Dec 15

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Today’s BrainWOD: “Rainbow Shuttle”

By Chris | Competitions, Enrichment, Enrichment for Adults, Games, Ignite! At Home, Ignite! At School, Interventions, Memory, wod | No Comments

Behind a visual barrier, arrange three cones of differing colors.

Set one cone of each color at 10m, 20m and 30m from the visual barrier.

Athlete races to the first set of cones, and guesses at the correct order to match the hidden pattern behind the visual barrier. Then they race back to the coach, who tells them how many they have correct.

The athlete races to the second set of cones and makes a more educated guess at the correct arrangement of cones. They sprint back to the coach and are told how many they have correct.

If necessary, they take their final chance on the third set of cones.

To make the challenge more difficult:

increase the distance between cones
increase the number of colors to four or five
remove previous attempts from eyesight (athlete has to recall previous attempts)

To make the challenge easier:

decrease the distance between cones
use only two colors with three cones (two red and one yellow, for example)

The purpose of this exercise is to plan for failure: few will make correct guesses on the first attempt. The key is for the athlete to learn that failure is expected and critical to eventual success as long as lessons are learned from each attempt.

Ignite BrainWODs are comprised of 7 phases (the Ignite 7 Steps.) Warmups, focus drills, pre-CrossFit Kids workouts and anchoring activities precede and follow this challenge for optimal benefit.

The Ignite 7 Steps are outlined in Enrichment Through Exercise, and taught in our NeuroMotive Coach Certifications.

Dec 09

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Today’s BrainWOD: “Speed Cards”

By Chris | Enrichment, Enrichment for Adults, Ignite! At Home, Ignite! At School, Memory, Testing, wod | No Comments

Speed Cards: 5 minutes to memorize a freshly shuffled pack of 52 playing cards. For those Mental Athletes who expect to memorize the complete pack in less than 5 minutes, a judge is nearby with a stopwatch to record the precise moment memorization stopped. The recall will take place once the entire 5 minute memorization period is complete.

Once the memorization period is over, the Mental Athletes will have 5 minutes for recall.

Every minute, on the minute, for 20 minutes:

10 burpees.

Then:

Repeat Speed Cards, above.

The full rules of the Speed Cards event from the USA Memory Championship are here.

Ignite BrainWODs are comprised of 7 phases (the Ignite 7 Steps.) Warmups, focus drills, pre-CrossFit Kids workouts and anchoring activities precede and follow this challenge for optimal benefit.

The Ignite 7 Steps are outlined in Enrichment Through Exercise, and taught in our NeuroMotive Coach Certifications.

Nov 30

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Today’s BrainWOD: “Spreeder”

By Chris | Enrichment, Enrichment for Adults, Ignite! At Home, Ignite! At School, Reading, Testing, wod | No Comments

Medicine Ball Suicide Run:

Use 4#, 8#, and 12# medicine balls. (You can use weights or other objects if you want.)

Mark a starting line, and place each of the balls 15 yards apart in a straight line, leading away from the starting line. Place the 4# ball closest and the 12# ball furthest.

The student sprints to the first ball, and carries it to the start line; then sprints to the second, etc.

Ages 3-6: 2 rounds, 1 minute apart

6-9: 4 rounds, :30 apart each

10+: 6 rounds, no rest.

Cut and paste the following text into Spreeder to test your reading speed:

Ages 3-6:

A woodpecker is a kind of bird. Woodpeckers are found all over the world except in the North and South poles, Australia, and New Zealand. There are over 200 different kinds of woodpeckers. The two largest woodpeckers, the Imperial Woodpecker and the Ivory-billed Woodpecker are most likely extinct. Animals that are extinct are no longer found on Earth.

Woodpeckers have sharp bills for drilling into wood, and short, stiff tails which help prop them up against tree trunks and branches. Woodpeckers also have very long tongues, which help them get at insects deep within trees. Woodpeckers are often heard drumming loudly on trees before they are seen. Woodpeckers can even become pests if they learn to drum on siding of a house.

Woodpeckers can easily be attracted to backyard bird feeders with sunflower seeds or suet. Suet is a kind of animal fat that is very tasty to woodpeckers and other birds.

Ages 6-9:

The Amazon is the world’s largest tropical rainforest. It covers an area of nearly 2.8 million square miles, which is nearly the size of the continent of Australia. The Amazon Rainforest gets its life from the majestic Amazon River, the world’s second largest river, which runs directly through the heart of the region. The rainforest itself is simply the drainage basin for the river and its many tributaries. The vast forest itself consists of four layers, each featuring its own ecosystems and specially adapted plants and animals.

The forest floor is the lowest region. Since only two percent of the sunlight filters through the top layers to the understory, very few plants grow here. The forest floor, however, is rich with rotting vegetation and the bodies of dead organisms, which are quickly broken down into nutrients integrated into the soil. Tree roots stay close to these available nutrients and decomposers such as millipedes and earthworms use these nutrients for food.

The understory is the layer above the forest floor. Much like the forest floor, only about 2- 5 percent of the sunlight reaches this shadowy realm. Many of the plants in the understory have large, broad leaves to collect as much sunlight as possible. The understory is so thick that there is very little air movement. As a result, plants rely on insects and animals to pollinate their flowers.

The layer above the understory is the canopy. This is where much of the action in the rainforest occurs. Many canopy leaves have specially adapted leaves which form “drip tips”. Drip tips allow water to flow off the leaves which prevents mosses, fungi, and lichens from occupying the leaves. Leaves in the canopy are very dense and filter about 80 percent of the sunlight. The canopy is where the wealth of the rainforest’s fruits and flowers grow. Bromeliads, cup-like plants, provide drinking pools for animals and breeding locations for tree frogs.

The emergent layer is above the canopy, and is the top layer of the rainforest. Trees in the emergent layer break through the canopy and may reach heights of 200 feet. Leaves in the emergent layer are small and covered with a special wax to hold water. Seeds are blown to other parts of the forest. Trees which rise to the emergent layer are massive. Many are braced by huge buttress roots. Trunks can be 16 feet in circumference. Many animals that survive in the emergent layer never touch the ground.

Ages 10+:

The Seattle Seahawks are based in Seattle, Washington and play in the National Football Conference (NFC) Western Division. Their history begins in 1972 but they were established in 1976. It was that season they joined the NFL as an expansion team along with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

In 1972, a group of businessmen and local community leaders came up with a plan to bring an NFL franchise to the city of Seattle. It took two years for it to work but the NFL announced the city would get a franchise in 1974. The Nordstrom family was the major shareholder. The team was initially going to be called the Seattle Kings, but ultimately became the Seahawks (another name for Osprey) as the result of a public naming contest. The team’s blue and green Osprey logo reflected tribal art from the region’s Native Americans.

The Seahawks are the only NFL team to switch conferences twice since the league merged into the NFL. It started out in the NFC West Division in 1976 before switching to the AFC West Division in 1977. The Seattle Seahawks then moved back into the NFC West Division in 2002. In 1984, under head coach Chuck Knox, the Seattle Seahawks made their first playoff appearance, defeating the Denver Broncos and the Miami Dolphins, before losing to the Los Angeles Raiders in the AFC Championship Game.

In 2002, the Seahawks were moved from the AFC West to the NFC West in order to balance the divisions after the addition of the expansion Houston Texans. As part of the move, the Seahawks replaced their silver helmets with steel blue helmets, and modified the osprey logo to look more aggressive.

In 2005, the Seahawks won the NFC Championship Game over the Carolina Panthers 34-14 and made it to their first (and to this point only) Super Bowl, where they were defeated by the Pittsburgh Steelers, 21-10.

Today, the future looks very bright for the Seahawks. In 2012, the team drafted Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson with their third round pick. Wilson quickly won the starting quarterback job, threw for over 3,000 yards, 26 touchdowns, and completed over 64 percent of his passes. He also ran for nearly 500 yards and scored four touchdowns. In 2012, Wilson and a stingy Seahawk defense led the team to a playoff appearance and victory over the Washington Redskins, 24-14, before suffering a heartbreaking loss to the Atlanta Falcons, 30-28 in the divisional round.

Read how “Hooked On Phonics” has slowed down the reading speed of a generation of kids.

Nov 20

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Today’s BrainWOD: Reading Recall

By Chris | Enrichment, Enrichment for Adults, Ignite! At Home, Ignite! At School, Reading, wod | No Comments

Perform a full-body warmup, including your preferred Focus Drill.

Read a book of your choosing for ten minutes.

Kids <6: Storybook

Kids 6-8: Chapter of a book

Kids 8-12: Descriptive book

Teens: Homework (biology, history or other descriptive subject)

Adults: Where’s Waldo? A Mathematical Strategy for Locating The Missing Man.

Then: “Tabata Talking Two”

Do as many squats as possible in 20 seconds. Take a 10-second rest.

Do as many pushups as possible in 20 seconds. Take a 10-second rest.

‘Teach’ your book for 20 seconds: retell the story, or explain the concepts you read. Fill the full 20 seconds without pausing. Take a 10-second rest.

Repeat for up to 8 rounds. The game ends when you can’t recall more about what you read.

Ignite BrainWODs are comprised of 7 phases (the Ignite 7 Steps.) Warmups, focus drills, pre-lesson challenges and anchoring activities should precede and follow this challenge for optimal benefit.

The Ignite 7 Steps are outlined in Enrichment Through Exercise, and taught in our NeuroMotive Coach Certifications.

Nov 18

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Today’s BrainWOD: “Swadesh”

By Chris | Enrichment for Adults, Ignite! At School, Language, Reading, wod, Writing | No Comments

The Swadesh List is a comparison of 270 words that are the most used in each language.

Many teachers are aware of the overlap of Latin-root words (commonly called ‘Romantic’ languages.) Comparing modern-day iterations of these words still shows a common root.

Choose words for today’s lesson from the Swadesh List. Compare the words; find the roots that they have in common.

Ages 3-5: 3 nouns

Ages 6-8: 10 nounds

Ages 9-12: 10 nouns and verbs (mixed)

Ages 13-18: 20 nouns and verbs (mixed)

Build the words into a challenge and create an anchoring activity as part of the Ignite 7 Steps.

Ignite BrainWODs are comprised of 7 phases (the Ignite 7 Steps.) The above can be used on its own as a lesson in language encoding, or incorporated into the 7 Steps for optimal benefit.

The Ignite 7 Steps are outlined in Enrichment Through Exercise, and taught in our NeuroMotive Coach Certifications.

The ConcussionPro tracking log is now available for purchase in our online store!