How to Be Mindful at School

The lessons in this unit help kids understand and practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is to purposefully pay attention to your breathing, feelings, senses, or actions in the present moment. When a child is mindful, they increase their ability to regulate emotions, manage stress, and self-motivate. You can vary the ways your students practice being mindful each day. Some of the many fit resources available for daily mindfulness practice include:

• Mindful Moments Cards
• My Keep Cool Cards
• fitFlow Yoga
• 5 Senses in 5 Minutes Grounding Exercise for Kids Video
• Animal Breathing Techniques Video
• Positive Self-Talk Coloring Pages
• Relax With Dakota: A Mindful Meditation for Kids-Video

Select an item from your desk and model exactly how you want students to apply mindfulness by intentionally noticing how the item looks, feels, smells, sounds, etc. Ask students what they noticed about how you were being mindful.  

To use this with your students click here.

Mindful at School

Present the first slide from the slideshow. Ask students to pick an item close by. Mindfully examine it. What do they notice?

How to Be Mindful at School

Tell students that mindfulness is when you pause and focus on the present moment. Explain that there are many times during the school day when being mindful can help them to greet others, manage mood, calm down, or get their minds ready for learning.

Check for Understanding: What can you do to be mindful at school? (Students give examples of purposefully paying attention to breathing, feelings, senses, or actions in the present moment.)

What Mindful Choices can Kids Make?

Print sets of the Mindful Moments cards for students to store in their desk and use when they want a mindful moment.

Set a time during the day for a mindful moment so students can choose an activity from their set of Mindful Moments cards.