Mindfulness Moments in the Classroom

Mindfulness Moments in the Classroom

Hey, y'all. You've heard about mindfulness, right? Slowing down, being present in the moment, focusing on one thing at a time. Even if you didn't know the name of it, you probably know what I'm talking about. 

This year especially, with all the quarantines, riots, and whatnot, mental health and mindfulness are going to be key to getting your students back on track. There are some great kids books about it. I love Breathe Like a Bear and M is for Mindfulness: an alphabet book about calm. (affiliate links)

For teachers, I recommend Happy Teachers Change the World. It's a great place to start for adding calm and mindful practices into your classroom. I absolutely love this book. I read most of it while camping, which was the perfect place to practice being mindful!

This year, I'm also adding these posters to our classroom. Each letter of the alphabet has a different mindful word to go along with it, and it includes the definition. You could put them all up during classroom setup or add one letter a day for the first few weeks of school. These make great SEL lessons when taught one letter at a time. 

There are two versions of the alphabet lines as you can see above. For kindergarten and first grade, I would use the print version. For second or third grade, I might have the print version already up in the room the first day of school and add one cursive letter a day below it (as pictured above). This way, I can teach the word and the cursive letter at the same time. Setup this way, there's no need to teach the words in alphabetical order either because you can just line them up under the print version. 

The beauty of mindfulness is that it can happen anywhere--during a writing or handwriting practice, standing in line, lunchtime, on the class carpet or at desks, pretty much anywhere. It calms the class and brings the energy level way down helping your students and you to focus better. 

You can grab a set or two of these posters here. I'm always adding new resources to my Teachers Pay Teachers store so be sure to follow me on TPT. I hope you got some new ideas for your classroom this year and thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful week and I'll talk to you soon.

Stay cozy,