In my last post, I documented my experience using the free guided talk & meditation app “Stop, Breathe & Think Kids.” From my experience, I found that the app was a great resource for helping kids recognize what they are currently feeling, and identify what they need to regulate their attention and emotions. The design of the app is simple yet appealing with smooth graphics depicting relating animal characters serving as a model within each activity.
Mindfulness can serve a multitude of purposes in a classroom. For example, it can provide appropriate regulation strategies for both teachers and students, help students develop positive responses to challenges as well as enhance functioning capabilities.
Strategies for implementation in the classroom
- Whole class mindfulness sessions
- Individual opportunities for engagement in mindfulness activities – eg a mindfulness center in classroom where students can use apps and headphones
- Create a designated area for students to self-engage in strategies explored in whole class mindfulness sessions – eg a special corner or chair where students can implement strategies
For whole class mindfulness sessions, teachers can use the app to aid facilitation or project a video of an activity for the whole group to follow along with. My app, Stop, Breathe & Think Kids, has a YouTube Channel where certain meditation activities are uploaded free for use.
As a collective, our tech group created a digital resource which explains mindfulness in greater depth and provides reading list of scholarly and non-academic sources to help further your understanding of mindfulness and different practices to implement it into schools. The digital resource can be found here.
