Learning About Mindfulness in the Classroom

Learning About Mindfulness in the Classroom

Hey, y'all! Over the years, there's been extensive research about the benefits of mindfulness for people of all ages. And we all know that the earlier we start some habits, the better they "stick." So this year, one of our goals to was develop some mindfulness habits in my classroom to help calm some of the chaos, increase some of the endurance, and create a general sense of well-being among my students. So we spent almost an entire day the first Friday of the school year focusing only on mindfulness techniques using the book Happy. 

Each page in this book has a little poem that describes what each mindfulness technique means. Some of them are about breathing, some are about focusing on your senses, some are about happiness and gratitude, but all are kid friendly and lend themselves to some fun activities for kids. So that's what we did. 

We literally read one page at a time, talked about what it meant, then did an activity or two as an example. The first page explains what mindfulness is so we learned how to do some box breathing with a little YouTube video. Next was listening, so we closed our eyes and rang a small chime. When the kids couldn't hear it anymore, they gave a thumbs up. Y'all, they did SO GOOD. I was afraid I'd start to lose them right away but they were here for it! 

Next was feelings. I had some little blank books from the Target dollar spot from I don't know how long ago, so we used them for several activities. You could easily just fold some copy paper in half to make some books, too. After we read about feelings, they drew a few things that make them feel happy in their books. They LOVED this. 

After recess, we read "relaxing" and did that GoNoodle Melting video. Always a favorite. For tasting, we shared a little bit of Boom Chicka Pop and described what we felt--textures, sweet or salty, hard or soft, etc. The way to a kid's heart is with food, I tell ya. 

When we got to touching, we pulled out the play dough. We turned down the lights (they could still see) and explored the texture of the play dough in our hands. We talked about how it can be a toy, but it can also be a calming tool if we need it to be. We talked a lot about how we felt after each activity and if one made us feel more calm than others. 

Our favorite was "discovering." For this one, I set up some small sensory bins (plastic shoebox sized) around the room filled with all kinds of things. One had little leaves and fall things from a craft store. One had little pinecones and fake pumpkins. There was a bin of squirrel feed (check for peanut allergies first), one of pompoms, and, our favorite, dry oatmeal will apple pie seasoning and plastic fall leaves and acorns!

Our second favorite was smelling. We talked about how smelling things can make us think of other things. Like if you smell cookies it might remind you of making cookies with your grown-ups or going to a certain bakery. So, I had a ton of different candle scents from Chalkboard Candle Co, and I placed them all around the room. The kids had a few minutes to go and sniff them and tell their friends what it made them think of. 

The chocolatey one made them think of hot chocolate. A couple said one made them think of their grandma's lotion. There was a woodsy one that made them think of being outside. One had a scent of sweet tobacco and a kid said it reminds them of the casinos! (Tell me you're a Nevada kid without telling me you're a Nevada kid! For the record, it totally does NOT smell like a casino!)

The next few were about loving and appreciating, which we drew about in our notebooks. For breathing, we did some deep breaths and we learned the word "savasana" which they thought was the funniest word ever. Made it a little hard to stay in savasana with all the giggling, but they were having fun. We'll try again next week. 

When the book was over, we had our first "Fika Friday." Fika is a Swedish word that basically means "coffee break," but they take their time and enjoy the break with a sweet bread as well as coffee. 

In our classroom, I was not about to give them coffee, but I did supply some mini pretzels and some juice packs. We sat in a circle, ate our snack, and used the time to talk about things we enjoyed this week, what we still think we need to work on (not blurting, *ahem*), and what we'd like to learn more about this year. It was our little community building meeting and it was so worth it. 

I had some requests for things like banana bread and cookies, so maybe since my own kids are big and I can't bake for a crowd at home anymore, I'll bake some for our Fika Friday meetings. It was a great class bonding activity and if we can keep that positive momentum going, I'm all for it.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you got some new ideas for your classroom. You can do a mindfulness day like this anytime during the school year, but I suggest the earlier the better. And the book really does guide you through a lot of it. 

Have a wonderful week and I'll talk to you soon. 

Stay cozy,