Mindfulness in Schools

Classroom Resources & Curriculum

Mindfulness in Schools: Resources for Teachers

Mindfulness, defined simply, means paying attention. With the publication of over 2,000 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles in just the last few years touting the benefits of mindfulness, schools are now realizing the critical role of mindfulness in teaching and learning. 

Free Mindfulness Resources for Kids

Breathing Exercise for Kids

tic-toc breath

This breathing exercise using movement to ground kids in their bodies. Follow along on SoundCloud.

Setting Up a Calming Corner

calming corner

Creating a claiming corner is a good practice. Kids can go to the corner when they're in need of a mindful moment.

Breathing Activity for Kids

candle breath

In this activity, Empowering Education uses visualization to model mindful breathing. You can follow along on SoundCloud.

Free Social and Emotional Learning Trial

Mindfulness and SEL

Mindfulness teaches students how to pay attention to the present moment. Our comprehensive, mindfulness-based social & emotional learning curriculum equips you and your students with all of the tools you need to reduce the impact of trauma and improve student outcomes. Enhance your teaching practices by using our step-by-step sample lessons in your classroom today.

Empowering Education offers the only fully-integrated mindfulness and SEL curriculum in the industry.

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What is Mindfulness?

https://youtu.be/OmQ2GHrGwPk

Resources for Teaching Mindfulness

Trauma occurs when one’s active response to threat does not work. In simple terms – the most traumatic situation is one where all of our choice is taken from us and we cannot escape.

Sadly, teachers and administrators with positive intentions regularly create these types of situations in schools when they remove student choice. While a small choice around academics or a ‘minor’ discipline proceeding may not seem like a big deal to us as adults, it is important to remember that trauma is subjective and relative and can result from real or perceived threats. We can imagine, for instance, how failing an assignment or being forced into a punitive consequence without having a chance to make reparations could feel ‘life or death’ to a student with trauma.

Being mindful of student choice is a critical best practice for trauma-informed teaching. Whenever possible, provide students with choice and ‘a way out.’ This will create a safer classroom environment and minimize explosive outbursts from students who have experienced trauma.

Free Social and Emotional Learning Trial

Mindfulness for Kids Articles