"Wait a minute. I need a moment to do some belly breathing" P3, Loanhead Primary
Mindful breathing (or belly breathing as I explain to the kids) is a fundamental building block of mindfulness. It can help us to:
self-regulate the body, moving us from fight/flight/freeze/faun to a more balanced state.
come back to ourselves in a moment.
give us a chance to slow down
create a moment to make choices that may be generative.
Following is a video link I use a lot to introduce belly breathing. The kids often think its funny, but they do like it. Belly Breathing: Mindfulness for Children (Ref: @The Mindfulness Teacher on YouTube)
Bubbles are a great way to explore belly breathing. Invite the children to experiment with different types of breathing. What they may notice is fast breathing creates small bubbles and slow breathing creates large bubbles. When we are doing our belly breathing, slow deep breathing is what we are working towards.
How to apply in class?
You could ask children to do 3 belly breaths as they transition from one activity to another, or when they have come from outside play to inside.
Buy a bell or sound bowl specifically for belly breathing practice and ring it at a random time once a day. When the bell sounds, invite some belly breathing.
What about Butterfly Breathing?
This is another way to introduce breathing and moving our bodies at the same time.
The following is a great video to introduce butterfly breathing.
Slowing down to notice what is around us and inside us is another practice to help us come in to the moment, attend to ourselves and the world around us mindfully.
I introduce this concept by playing the ‘Noticing game’. We choose a detective. I ask the detective to leave the room. We choose a leader in the group. We sit in a circle. The leader will make a movement (eg clap hands) but slowly change their movement (eg gently hit their legs). The detective returns to the room and has to use their noticing skills to notice who is the leader. This requires slowing down and observing which can be hard for kids. The ‘followers’ also have to keep watching the leader and following their lead. Also practicing their noticing.
The other way I introduce this concept is by making Glitter jars with the children: How to Make a Glitter Jar for Mindfulness - Easiest Recipe! – HeartMindKids
Glitter jars can be used in many ways including to help kids go to sleep. For the noticing practice I often give the children eco friendly glitter and we add a few large stars or hearts. I invite them to notice these large pieces.
In a large classroom this may be tricky. It may be better in small groups. I use plastic jars and use a glue gun to seal the jars. I do this by myself after a class. I also ask the children to write their names on the jars and decorate it so they know whose is who.
How to apply in class?
Allow everyone to keep there jars at school on a shelf. You could ask everyone to grab there jar once a week to practice noticing.
When someone is having a difficult moment, you could reach for a jar or ask them to imagine the glitter swirling and then breath into it as it settles.
You can ask the kids to imagine the glitter jar. Imagine it settling. Breath and watch it settle in your mind and body.
Play a couple of rounds of the noticing game once a week. See if you notice a change in the children’s capacity to stay in the game.
Slowing down to notice what is around us using our senses is another way of coming to the moment and meeting ourselves.
The 5,4,3,2 and 1 practice is a great way to start.
Introduction to 5-4-3-2-1 and Skill Practice - YouTube (3 minutes) (ref Mind Matters Minutes)
Game: Mindful Statues. Just like musical statues, put on music and invite everyone to dance. Then pause the music and ask one child to name 5 things they can see. Play music. Pause music. Ask another child 4 things they can feel. Go through each sense. Sometimes the children will refer to things they saw earlier, the invitation is what do they see now? This is a great exercise when you feel the children need to move about and get the ‘sillies’ out of them!
PlayDoh is a great vehicle to help us slow down, connect with all our senses (except eating) while moving and being creative.
How to apply in class?
Randomly ask children in class, what are 5 things you see etc.
Play a round of Mindful statues once a week, asking the kids to notice. I often add in, notice body sensations like the temperature of your feet. Again, these are little practices that are intended to cultivate the practice of meeting ourselves, now in this moment.
Soundscapes: Using soundscapes in your classroom, on low can be a gentle way to transition into the classroom. Examples are below.
The Wind in the Trees ( 10 Hours of Natural White Noise ) – YouTube (ref: Ephemeral Rift)
The Most Relaxing Waves Ever - Ocean Sounds to Sleep, Study and Chill (youtube.com) (ref: Naturaleza Viva - Ocean Sounds For Sleeping)
4K Forest Birdsong 2 - Birds Sing in the Woods - No Loop Realtime Birdsong - Relaxing Nature Video – YouTube (ref: TheSilentWatcher)
You can also use the soundscapes as ways of moving, connecting and noticing your body.
Below is an example of guidance I use with the tree soundscape.
Standing up.
Give the sound your full attention.
Notice how you feel. Notice thoughts. Notice your body.
If your mind wanders go back to the sound.
You can move around if you want to.
Consider taking the class outside and asking them to pause and listen. What sounds are you noticing? What else?
The Sound Bowl
For some reason, the kids I have worked with LOVE to hit the sound bowl. A sound bowl has its heritage in Buddhism. It’s important to recognise the history of these items. There is a practice and technique involved in using the sounds bowl. Its not just how you hit it but how you hold it. This is a lesson in itself. What I often invite is for someone to strike the bowl, and for every one else to wiggle their fingers for as long as they can hear the sound wave. Often this is longer than we think. Again, it supports the practice of bringing our attention and awareness to this moment as well as moving our bodies.
How to apply in class?
Strike the sound bowl randomly in class or maybe have a Mindful Ambassador for a week who gets to randomly hit it once a day. Let everyone know that when we hear the bell we stop whatever we are doing or saying and tune into the sound with our fingers.
Invite everyone to take a moment..what can you hear? Tune into the sounds around us in this moment.
Ask everyone to lie down and listen to a soundscape for 5 minutes.
Inviting children to slow down and notice is a key principle and practice of mindfulness. In taking the time to notice, we begin to notice things we may not have seen before.
One of the tools I use is ‘what’s in the box?’. Every week I bring in a small box with items I have collected from nature. Before we open the box I ask kids to take a belly breath. Notice how they are feeling. Curious? Excited? We then slowly open the box together. I get mixed responses. Often it is ‘oh thats just a shell’. I invite kids to slow down and begin to take the time to really notice the details of the shell. What if you put it to the light? This practice helps slow down and bring attention and awareness back to now.
If we are walking in nature I invite kids to slow down and notice leaves, birds or anything around them.
How to apply in class?
Play mindful statues with a focus on seeing. When I play this with kids they will often say what they think they have seen or what they saw earlier, or they will be general (eg chairs). Invite them to be specific (the blue chair in front of me) and to refer to things they see now, in this moment.
What's in a single box with 30 kids is tricky. Maybe try box per table with enough items for a pair of children to explore. This could include shells, acorns, leaves or dried berries from a tree.
The main way I invite children to bring attention and awareness to touch is inviting them to tune into their feet and the texture of socks/shoes around their feet. I also ask about the feeling of clothes on their arms or legs.
Often children with trauma, have learnt to go numb or check out of their own bodies. This practice is about coming back to the here and now through their bodies.
Children with autism can be highly sensitive to touch so tuning into their feet and the feeling of socks may be uncomfortable for them. I invite kids to give it a go but never insist. Not every practice is for everyone which is why I offer a number of practices and ways in.
Similar to noticing our feet but slightly different is to invite kids to sit in their chair, wiggle to the front of their chair if they have to, and plant both feet on to the ground. That is it. You may want to add, what are you noticing about your feet right now?
How to apply in class?
When the children are at their desks you could ask them to notice their feet. The temperature of their feet or the feeling of material against their feet or even the spaces between their toes.
Play mindful statues with a focus on what they can feel on their skin, eg the air, clothes.
When they are being noisy, ask them to take a moment to put both feet on the ground, fully. No speaking. Both feet, fully touching the floor. Take a whole body breath.
Mindful eating is often spoken about when referring to mindfulness. It is an opportunity to slow down, taste and savour food. When practicing this with children they often say, it tastes better when I eat it slowly.
Obviously it’s important to keep allergies in mind.
I often give the children a tangerine. Even if they don’t like tangerines I invite them to participate. They don’t have to eat it. I ask them to pretend they are an alien and I just gave them this item (this comes from various sources). I invite them to look at it as if they have never seen one before (this is a principle called beginners mind). What do they notice about its skin? Which country did it come from? How did it get here? We take our time to explore the tangerine…an everyday item. This act of slowing down, noticing and using all our senses to explore it, is another way of practicing mindfulness.
How to apply in class?
Ask the canteen to supply you with a fruit in class once a month. Invite the children to slow down and notice the fruit and their senses as they explore the fruit.
Invite the children to pause...what are you tasting in this moment?
Invite the children to pretend to be detectives. What do they notice when they eat their lunch slowly? Report back.
Using our sense of smell is another way of coming back to this moment.
The tangerine exercise is another way of exploring smell.
Bringing children outside and inviting them to notice what they smell can be a useful practice, especially across the seasons.
How to apply in class?
Ask the children to pause, what is one thing you can smell right now?
Bring in different items in a jar (much like what is in the box). What can you smell? How does it make you feel? Notice any thoughts you may have? You could bring various spices like cinnamon, clove and ginger.
Yoga is a great practice to introduce into the classroom. It is a chance to connect with your body and breath. There are lots of different movements that are playful, can be done standing up or sitting down. Please see here for some simple and great moves.
15 Fun and Easy Yoga Poses for Kids (Free Printables) (ref: weareteachers.com)
I have invited kids to do lots of different poses. For some reason, everyone loves to be a tree! You could also add a forest soundtrack if you wanted.
The Wind in the Trees ( 10 Hours of Natural White Noise ) – YouTube
Again I like to lean into Mindful statues, as it is in part about moving and connecting to our bodies. Each time you play mindful statues when you ask everyone to pause, you can have a focus for that session. Here are some examples:
Focus on feet.
Focus on the 5,4,3,2,1 practice.
Focus on belly breathing.
Focus on just one sense.
Focus on various yoga moves.
•When I ask kids at the end of a Mindfulness Programme, what they think they will continue to practice beyond the programme, the most popular answer is the body scan, especially at bedtime. I fall asleep pretty easily but when I wake up at night I can be staring at the ceiling for what feels like hours. I tend to lean into the body scan in these moments. It more often than not helps me…or at least takes my attention and awareness away from the ceiling! Asking the kids to lie down on the floor and take a moment can be a great way of transitioning from say PE to a more cognitive activity.
•Please find below a great video I often show the kids. Some think this is hilarious! Most seem to like it. The Body Scanner! Mindfulness for Children (Ref: The Mindfulness Teacher)
•I recently read about an Australian study on adolescents and the impact of poor sleep on mental health(1). In the study of more than 500 young people aged 11 to 16 years old, poor sleep predicted increases in generalised anxiety, social anxiety, depression and eating disorders.
While a number of factors are at play, and there are a number of strategies that can help (no devices at least an hour before bed, repeated bed rituals), what I had also read in another study, was that ‘listening to a 15-minute mindfulness body scan a night halved the time taken (for adolescents) to fall asleep’ contributing to more sleep across an average night. If you start to give your kids some tools now that support good sleep, then they may be more likely to lean into them as they get older.
References
(1) Richardson, C., Magson, N. R., Oar E., Fardouly, J., Johnco, C., Freeman, J., & Rapee, R. M., (2024) Repetitive Negative Thinking Mediates the Relationship Between Sleep Disturbance and Symptoms of Generalized Anxiety, Social Anxiety, Depression, and Eating Disorders in Adolescence: Findings From a 5-Year Longitudinal Study. Clinical Psychological Science, 1-24.
(2) Gradisar, M., Kahn, M., Micic, G. et al. (2022) Sleep’s role in the development and resolution of adolescent depression. Nature Reviews Psychology v1, 512–523.