What's New with GoNoodle?

Hi all!  Popping in very quickly to share some fun GoNoodle updates.  

Just in case you're not familiar with GoNoodle, here's a super quick explanation: this site will become one of your all time favourite classroom management tools as soon as you use it! :)  GoNoodle is a clever site that allows you to create an account for your class (you can even have multiple class profiles if you need to) through which you can access all sorts of Brain Break clips.  You know that giant list of YouTube links you had saved, or that Pinterest board you've filled with videos to use for those moments during the day when your kidlets need to wiggle? Yep, you won't need to worry about them anymore.  Your class gets to choose a GoNoodle 'champ', who grows bigger and stronger (and cooler!) as you use the Brain Breaks in your classroom.  After a while, your champ will 'max out' and you get to choose a new one. Here's our current champ, McPufferson:

I was already in love with GoNoodle, but when I logged on in the last week of holidays to see what clips were new my devotion grew even stronger.  Guess what?  You can now add your own YouTube clips!  Although the selection already in the GoNoodle catalogue is pretty darn good, there were a few songs and dances that my kidlets loved that weren't on there.  Here's what the screen looks like when you choose 'YouTube' from the menu:

All you have to do is click "add you own YouTube brain break" and paste the URL of the clip you want to add.  Easy peasy!  I added a heap of videos, and not just the 'get up and boogie' type!  I now plan to use GoNoodle for movement breaks, as well as for those Brain Breaks that work as a teaching tool too.  There's so many ditties I use for maths especially - so they were the first ones I added, closely followed by 'Chicka Chicka Boom Boom' and lots of Learning Station and Harry Kindergarten videos that we love to sing and dance to.    As I added them, I marked them as a favourite so they are even easier to find.  Now when I choose my 'favourites' tab I see them all there (along with any of the original GoNoodle videos I'd marked): 

Another great new feature is that your champ now moves up levels based on the number of Brain Breaks you have watched, rather than by their number of minutes. You can see in the first picture above that we are just one clip away from levelling McPufferson up!  This is great if you find that you only have a few minutes in the day to have Brain Breaks, or if you only see groups of children for a short amount of time in the day.  It makes the levels come around a whole heap faster which keeps the kidlets super excited to watch their champ grow.

I use GoNoodle every day - it is seriously awesome for re-energising kidlets when they have been working hard, to provide a learning opportunity during times (like fruit break) that would otherwise be idle chatter, for a few minutes of calming down, or even just as a fun treat.  Of course, we still do lots of screen-less singing and finger plays and I think the kidlets like them even more now because they are such a contrast to GoNoodle.  I love to hear the cheers of 'Yay! A Brain Break!!' when my kidlets see GoNoodle on our IWB screen. :)  

Do you GoNoodle?