This is a brain break strategy, and a good one. The high level of rigor in comprehension based instruction requires brain breaks:
The students form a circle around the perimeter of the room. A soft squishy ball, or just a tennis ball but nothing harder, gets tossed around the group from one kid to another. The kid who just caught the ball gets to decide to whom to throw it.
It progresses in an attempt to build a complete web of connectedness with all kids catching the ball no more than once. Silence must be observed. If it is not observed cancel the brain break.
All brain breaks should have as their goal to drop stuff from the desktop of the brain into the hard drive/deeper mind. This is done by crossing the hemispheres. If it doesn’t do that, it’s not a brain break. Either legs or arms must cross to accomplish this task.
Be wary of children who may have a handicap that prevents them from catching the ball. Don’t use this brain break strategy in that case. And beware of children who want to “chuck” the ball hard at someone. That requires an immediate stoppage of the game and back to work.
It can take a bit long for everyone to get a touch if the ball is dropped, because the cycle begins over when that happens. Overall, this is a highly recommended brain break activity.