what about cool downs?

Many teachers are not aware of the importance of a cool down. And what is exactly this importance?

Many teachers just play a game or let students work on an activity till the bell rings. When you do this you neglect to give your students closure on what they have learned for the day. You’re not capitalizing on your unique opportunity to effectively wrap things up in a way that will benefit your students’ learning.

The warm up and the cool down are like the introduction and the conclusion of an essay.

An essay with no conclusion has a very abrupt ending. If you just let students work on an activity till it’s time to go home, you are not only giving them a sudden and abrupt ending to the lesson, you may also come across as disorganized and improvised. The cool down, however, clearly shows students that this is the way you planned for the lesson to end and that you’re ending it like this for a reason. The cool down has its own purpose.