Mindfulness Classroom Action PlanRational: Because this is a tool that students can utilize throughout their life, it is important that the connotation of “mindfulness” remains accurate. Mindfulness, when applied appropriately, includes the qualities of awareness (paying attention to one’s experience through the senses and the mind); of non-judgment (not labeling things “good” or “bad” but rather observing with a neutral attitude); and of stillness in heart and mind (though the body may be moving).

How to get started:

You will need the sound of singing bowl or chime which can be downloaded

This first class is very important. If you set them up to view mindfulness as a special time and they know that the environment changes for mindfulness, every mindfulness lesson will go better. Do not move on to other mindfulness lessons until they understand the instructions and activities of this first lesson.

Keep it simple. When introducing mindfulness, be simple, especially for the youngest classes. Too much talking will not be effective. However, older students benefit from hearing how mindfulness will be relevant to their lives.

Set the bar high. After introducing “mindful bodies,” see if they can sit with mindful bodies and closed eyes for 1 min. Same for mindful listening. Increase the time each day if they can do it. If they don’t make it, then reduce it.

1. Practice every day! The sooner you begin integrating mindfulness exercises into your daily classroom routine, even for just a minute at a time, the quicker it will become a part of the classroom culture. 

2. Choose a time for mindfulness. We are creatures of habit! Try to always practice mindfulness at the same time. Many teachers find mindfulness helps their class settle down after recess or after lunch. Of course, you may do it more than once a day.

3. Create the environment. Make it clear that mindfulness is a special time: clear off desks, perhaps move to the carpet, or have all chairs face the front of the room. Ask students not to take bathroom breaks and refrain from talking and moving for a little while.

4.  If you like, you can get more creative and add more in-depth lessons, or practice for longer periods. You can do the same thing every day.

A simple lesson to repeat daily is one minute of mindful listening and one minute of mindful breathing.

Introduction Today I want us to learn something called mindfulness. Has anyone ever heard the word Mindfulness? Mindfulness is noticing what is happening in the present moment. Mindfulness can help us learn to pay close attention to many things. It can also help us calm down when we are angry, sad, frustrated, or have any difficult emotion. Mindfulness can help us notice when we are happy or grateful too. It can also help us focus and in school, sports or music.

We’re going to try practicing mindfulness everyday so even if we don’t understand exactly what it is today, we will after some time.

1. “Please get into your ‘mindful bodies’—still and quiet, sitting upright, eyes closed.”2. “Now place all your attention on the sound you are about to hear. Listen until the sound is completely gone.”3. Ring a “mindfulness bell,” or have a student ring the bell. Use a bell with a sustained sound or a rain stick to encourage mindful listening.4. “Please raise your hand when you can no longer hear the sound.”5. When most or all have raised their hands, you can say, “Now slowly, mindfully, move your hand to your stomach or chest, and just feel your breathing.”

6. You can help students stay focused during the breathing with reminders like, “Just breathing in … just breathing out …”7. Ring the bell to end.

Mindfulness in a chairHere’s how to sit on a chair for mindfulness:1. Place your feet flat on the floor

Your knees need to be at more than about ninety degrees so that your hips are above your knees.

2. Position your hands on your knees or desk face down, face up or place your hands in each other.If your hands are facing up, you may find it comfortable to allow your thumbs to gently touch each other. Some people also like to allow the hands to rest on a small cushion on their legs to prevent the shoulders dragging downwards.

3. Close your eyes and keep closed throughout entire session. Imagine that your head is a helium-filled balloon.4. Allow your head to lift naturally and gently and straighten your

spine without straining. You want to achieve an upright back without tension. Picture the vertebrae as stacked coins. Tuck in your chin slightly.

HINTS FOR LOWER GRADES:

The Still Quiet PlaceThe language below is for students in Kindergarten through 2nd grade, and can be adapted for all ages.

Hi, today I would like to share one of my favorite places with you. It is called Still Quiet Place. It’s not a place you travel to in a car, or a train, or a plane. It is a place inside you that you can find just by breathing.

Let’s find it now. If you feel safe, close your eyes. Whether your eyes are open or closed, take some slow deep breaths. See if you can feel a kind of warm smile in your body. Do you feel it? This is your Still Quiet Place. Take some more deep breaths, and really snuggle in.

The best thing about your Still Quiet Place is that it’s always inside you. And you can visit it whenever you like. It is nice to visit your Still Quiet Place and feel the love that is there. It is especially helpful to visit your Still Quiet Place if you are feeling angry, or sad, or afraid. The Still Quiet Place is a good place to talk with these feelings, and to make friends with them. When you rest in your Still Quiet Place and talk to your feelings, you may

find that the feelings are not as big or as powerful as they seem. Remember you can come here whenever you want, and stay as long as you like.

To view a brief video of this and other practices go to: http://www.stillquietplace.com/press_video.html

Additional Activities

1. Listen to the bell. An easy way for children to practice mindfulness is to focus on paying attention to what they can hear. You can use a singing bowl, a bell, and a set of chimes or a phone app that has sounds on it. Tell your children that you will make the sound, and they should listen carefully until they can no longer hear the sound (which is usually 30 seconds to a minute).

2. Practice with a breathing buddy. For young children, an instruction to simply "pay attention to the breath" can be hard to follow. In this Edutopia video, Daniel Goleman describes a 2nd-grade classroom that does a "breathing buddy" exercise: Each student grabs a stuffed animal, and then lies down on their back with their buddy on their belly. They focus their attention on the rise and fall of the stuffed animal as they breathe in and out.

3. Make your walks mindful. One of my children's favorite things to do in the summer is a "noticing walk." We stroll through our neighborhood and notice things we haven't seen before. We'll designate one minute of the walk where we are completely silent and simply pay attention to all the sounds we can hear -- frogs, woodpeckers, and a lawnmower. We don't even call it "mindfulness," but that's what it is.4. Establish a gratitude practice. I believe gratitude is a fundamental component of mindfulness, teaching our children to appreciate the abundance in their lives, as opposed to focusing on all the toys and goodies that they crave. My family does this at dinner when we each share one thing we are thankful for. It is one of my favorite parts of the day.

5. Try the Spiderman meditation! My 5-year-old son is in to all things superheroes, and this SpiderMan meditation is right up his alley. This meditation teaches children to activate their "spidey-senses" and their ability to focus on all they can smell, taste, and hear in the present moment. Such a clever idea!

6. Check your personal weather report. In Sitting Still Like a Frog, Eline Snel encourages children to "summon the weather report that best describes [their] feelings at the moment." Sunny, rainy, stormy, calm, windy, tsunami? This activity allows children to observe their present state without overly

identifying with their emotions. They can't change the weather outside, and we can't change our emotions or feelings either. All we can change is how we relate to them. As Snel describes it, children can recognize, "I am not the downpour, but I notice that it is raining; I am not a scaredy-cat, but I realize that sometimes I have this big scared feeling somewhere near my throat."

7. Make a Mind Jar. A mind jar is a bit like a snow globe - shake it up and watch the storm! But soon, if we sit and breathe and simply watch the disturbance, it settles. As do our minds.

Upper Grades

Practicing P.E.A.C.E.Participants begin by attending to the breath and the body, then move on to observing thoughts and emotions. This is a transformative process. When we are aware of our thoughts and feelings, we can choose our behavior, and choosing behavior is how we create our lives. For example, when a student is struggling with a math problem or confronted in the hallway s/he can pause, breathe and then respond to the situation. Below is guided practice to support older students (including us adult learners) in dealing with life’s frequent challenges.

If we remember to use it, mindfulness can help us deal with difficult situations -- from ordinary every day difficulties like losing your cell phone to more extreme difficulties like failing a class, breaking up with a girlfriend or boyfriend, having a friend go to jail or maybe even going to jail yourself, getting pregnant or grieving a death in your family or community.

Mindfulness is much more than just watching the breath. For me, the power and beauty of mindfulness is that using it helps me when things are most difficult.

PEACE is an acronym for a practice that can be used in any difficult situation. Perhaps you can begin by practicing with small daily irritations. Those of you dealing with more extreme circumstances may need to repeat the practice many times a day, and you may also want to get additional help from a friend, a parent, a counselor, or a doctor.

The practice goes like this.

P- P is for pause. When you become aware that things are difficult, pause.

E- E is for exhale. When you exhale you may want to let out a sigh, or a groan, or even weep. And after you exhale you want to...Inhale. Just keep breathing.

A- A is for acknowledge, accept, allow. As you continue to breathe, acknowledge the situation as it is. Your backpack with all your stuff is gone, your parents are getting divorced, and your best friend is now dating the person who just became your ex… Acknowledging a situation doesn’t mean you are happy about it. It just means that you recognize the situation is as it is, whether you like it or not.

Accept the situation, and your reaction to it. You are furious, devastated, heartbroken, jealous, or all of the above.

Allow your experience. Do your best to rest in the Still Quiet Place and watch the thoughts, feelings, and body sensations. Notice when you are tempted to suppress your experience by pretending you are fine, or to create additional drama by rehashing things in your head or with friends. And allow this, too. See if you can discover a middle way: having your thoughts and feelings, without your thoughts and feelings having you and making you act in ways you may regret.

C- C is for choosing. When you are ready, and this may take a few moments, days, weeks or even months, choose how you will respond. At its best, responding involves some additional Cs.

Clarity: being clear about what you want, what your limits are, what you are responsible for.

Courage: the courage to speak your truth, and to hear the truth of others.

Compassion: compassion for yourself, for others, and for how incredibly difficult it sometimes is to be a human being, and 

Comedy: (Actually, I prefer the word humor, but it doesn’t start with C.) It is amazing what a sense of humor and a willingness to not take ourselves too seriously can do.

E- E is for engage. After you have paused, exhaled, allowed, and chosen your response, you are ready to engage with people, with the situation, with life.

To view Practice go to:

:http://www.stillquietplace.com/press_video.html

Resources:You tube is a great resource: I search 5 min guided mindfulness and use those.

https://youtu.be/XB68u20sYa4

https://youtu.be/rxcKyzZYJ04?list=PLEJbP9lvxlPR1kLayVPx_y4_Rx9M6kNne

https://youtu.be/dEzbdLn2bJc

htt https://youtu.be/-kt0sSascN0

ps://youtu.be/b4Ey8C4o5tE

Woodruff 2015-2016

OPTIONAL

MINDFULNESS ROLL OUT PLAN