You’ll find little argument that “calmer minds lead to a calmer, more productive classroom.”
Nurturing mindfulness in the classroom means kids will be more focused on their learning, and it’s a really good habit to put in place, especially with students just starting out on their education journey.
But, before we talk about some easy ways to make mindfulness part of the classroom, let’s talk about what mindfulness actually means.
What is mindfulness?
The Oxford Dictionary defines mindfulness as: a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.
In layman’s terms then, it means paying full attention; being completely aware of where you are and what you’re doing.
There are three simple things young students need to do to get started:
- Not do anything else but the task at hand
- Focus on breathing naturally
- Give their full attention, with all their senses, to what they are doing
It sounds simple! But practising mindfulness takes time and can be tricky in today’s over-stimulated world. Classrooms are often over-stimulating too, with both teachers and students often expected to complete tasks with an emphasis on speed and efficiency, leading to more stress. What is apparent is that mindfulness goes way beyond just furniture.
Mindfulness is all about slowing down and creating less stress – having a calm environment and lifestyle. Creating a mindful classroom and teaching mindfulness to your children is well worth the time and effort because there are so many benefits to it:
The Benefits of Mindfulness for Children
When you teach children mindfulness, they develop an awareness of themselves and their environment, and begin to understand their emotions and their attentiveness. Mindfulness is a tool they can use to build their confidence and resilience, as well as develop their executive functioning skills.
Advanced executive functioning skills are key to tasks like planning, reasoning, problem-solving, and the development of positive social relationships.
In a mindful classroom, the immediately obvious changes you’ll note include:
- Better attention
- Better retention
- Improvement in shifting between tasks
- Better self-regulation
- Better behaviour with others and conflict resolution
All this takes time and commitment – but the rewards are well worth it. A mindful classroom is not only a better learning environment; the children benefit mentally, psychologically, socially and physically.
Creating the Mindful Classroom
Creating a mindful classroom is a lot like teaching – the job is never-ending, but adding a mindful activity or two to the daily timetable is a simple commitment to start you on the road to a mindful classroom.
It just takes a few minutes in the morning or as a short calming down activity after first or second break. A few short and really effective activities include:
- Belly Breathe – The children find a comfortable place to lie down, close their eyes and put their hands on their diaphragm. Ask them to pay attention to their breathing and notice their feelings. You might like to play some relaxing music too. After a minute or so, ask them to share their thoughts and feelings with a friend.
- Teddy Bear Breathing – This activity is an extension of belly breathing. Each child needs a small teddy bear, other soft toy or anything small to hold. They lie down and breathe just like before but place their small item on their diaphragm, and mindfully watch the toy slowly moving up and down as they breathe.
- Shape Breathing – an activity great for settling a class on those high energy days! Together with the children, slowly draw a rectangle shape in the air with your finger. As you make the first side you all breathe in. Then hold the breath as you make the next 2 sides of the rectangle. On the last side of the rectangle, you all slowly breath out. Sneak in some maths for variation – squares and triangles work well too!
- The Listening Triangle – The children sit cross-legged on the floor, and teacher dings a triangle. The kids close their eyes and listen carefully to the sound of the triangle fading away. When they can no longer hear the resonating sound of the triangle, they open their eyes. Repeat a couple of times.
- Classroom Yoga – There are heaps of age-appropriate yoga activities on YouTube. To include yoga as classroom activity, each child will need enough space to move freely.
Create a Mindfulness Area
This is a dedicated space of quiet and calm in your classroom, an inviting place where kids can practice mindfulness, calm down and relax. An ideal way to create a separate space in any area of your school is using our screens.
It should be a welcoming place children can go to whenever they feel they need a break or get a grip on their emotions. It’s the place where they’ll begin to develop self-awareness and self-regulation skills.
A “peace-out” mindfulness area should have soft textures and calming colours. You can read more about the effects different colours have on little minds here, and see our full range of colours here.
Items that really work well in mindfulness areas are floor pads, comfortable small chairs, mindfulness books (see storage here). Various fiddle toys, plants and soft lighting help too. There’s also our Space Booth, which offers you 1-, 2- or 3-seater options and a wide range of gorgeous colours to choose from.
It’s good to keep the area uncluttered – you don’t want it to be over stimulating space. Back-up storage boxes of books and playthings to swap out is a great idea (see one of many great storage units here).
It really helps to spend some time chatting about the space and its purpose with the kids. Set clear boundaries about how and when the children can use the peace-out area, how long they can stay there and how many kids can use it at the same time.
As you get ready to create a mindful classroom, remember that the best way to teach a child to be mindful is to be a mindful teacher! Being a teacher can be a little stressful; practicing mindfulness relieves stress and creates better teachers!
Mindfulness creates a calmer, more productive classroom environment.
Mindfulness creates a calmer, more productive teacher.
Mindfulness creates a calmer and more productive child.
