Mindfulness Practice in Middle Elementary

Mindfulness is a practice we use in our classroom every day. We are using the Mindfulness curriculum designed by Mindful Schools and practiced across the country in many different school settings. The curriculum is structured to present a concept each week for intentional practice, which builds on concepts presented previously.

Within this structure, mindfulness is defined as "paying attention to what is happening in the present moment." Mindfulness can help us pay attention to many things, and can help us calm down when we are angry, sad, frustrated, or in the midst of any difficult emotion.  This practice can also help us feel happy and help us focus on our tasks.

The first lesson was having a mindful body, keeping still, and listening to the sounds in the environment.

The second lesson was on mindfulness of breathing, paying attention to the rhythm of our breath, and finding an anchor place in our body for our breath to return to when our mind begins to wander, much like the anchor on a boat holds the boat in place. 

The third lesson was heartfulness, practicing kind thoughts for ourselves and others.

In the fourth lesson, the focus was on body awareness, noticing different sensations in different parts of our bodies - feet, hands, legs, shoulders, arms, neck, fingers, head - and coming to an awareness of why we would want to be mindful of our bodies.

The fifth lesson returned to the mindfulness of breathing and staying at our base, while the sixth lesson built on the idea of "heartfulness" by imagining situations where we were generous and what we felt like when we were generous. We tried to notice and practice generosity throughout our day.

Our current lesson is noticing our thoughts.  Where does our mind go when it drifts away from the anchor place? Does it go to the past, stay in the present, or go to the future? We use our breath to return to the moment, and we practice returning our thoughts to the present in different situations throughout the day.

Future lessons will build on these basic concepts as we practice mindful seeing, kindness and caring, creating space between strong emotion and action, slowing down to be mindful of what our body is doing, practicing gratitude by looking for the good, mindful walking, and mindful eating.

These times of reflection allow students to recognize what is easy and what is difficult. (Keeping their eyes closed is a universal challenge!) The sense of calm and peacefulness sets the tone for the rest of our day.