Mindfulness in the classroom

We have started our unit in December which according to our data was one of the most stressful months for our students. December is when we had our exams, it is also a high stress month because of the holiday season. Our students do not respond well to stress, and a change in their daily schedules, which breaks inevitable create for them. Our school Occupational Therapist took the Mindful Schools Summer retreat last year and was graciously able to assist me in educating our students on the importance of being mindful. We started our class off each session with a full minute of listening to the mindful singing bowl. Students were instructed to close their eyes, relax their bodies and count the number of times we stuck the singing bowl. They were asked to sit or lay quietly until the singing bowl stopped. We then went through varies lessons on mindfulness, see Mindful Schools webpage for lessons.

MINI LESSONS:

One of their favorite lessons was the mindful eating one. We offered several flavors of sugar free mints, gum, and chews to the students. They were asked to swish it around in their mouths and describe their experiences.

I tried to get the students outside as much as possible, especially during our Mindfulness unit. One of my favorite outside lessons was the Rainbow Walk. I printed out a copy of the ROYGBIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo & violet/purple) and passed it to those students who needed help remembering their colors. We set out in a single file line and took turns finding our color, taking turns with ROYGBIV. This activity helps students to slow down and notice their surroundings (it also helps them to always remember ROYGBIV).

Rainbow Walk doc:

https://static.wixstatic.com/ugd/0a6790_ef172db1e6514cc18a277042498cded2.docx

Our students enjoyed the yoga dice lesson. We had the group roll a set of yoga dice and compete to see who could get into position the quietest. Yes, I said quietest. You can mix it up and have students create their own yoga poses, or have them create their own dice with other mindfulness techniques on them.