Why Mindfulness is Good for Kids

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
• 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

Ask kids to share a time and places when they can be mindful (when they paused to focus on the present moment). Encourage kids to share examples of times and places when they paused to be mindful.

To use this with your students click here.

Being Mindful

Present the slides to students. Ask them to identify which choice describes a person being mindful (paying attention on purpose) or not being mindful.

Benefits of Being Mindful

Explain that being mindful helps a child recognize their feelings and emotions, which in-turn, helps them make healthy choices. Being mindful also supports self-control and helps manage stress.

Check for Understanding: What are the benefits of being mindful? (Answers may vary to include: manage stress, control impulses, and motivate themselves to make healthy choices.)

Relax

Present the two mindful moment activities (relaxation and breathing exercises) from the slideshow. Pause and allow students time to independently complete the activity of their choice. If time allows, do both!

Today we learned that when you are mindful you are doing good things for your body and brain. Name a time when you can pause for a mindful moment and do a tense and release relaxation activity or a breathing exercise.