Betsy Rose is a seasoned singer, songwriter, activist, community songleader, and spiritual teacher. In this video, she demonstrates one of her classic Mindfulness songs, intended to help younger children connect with a sense of mindfulness, presence, and peace. You can get a sense of how Betsy leads children in song exercises, and how useful song…
With younger students (these can be elementary or middle school students), I love to bring imagination and play into mindfulness practices! One activity that inspires creativity is having students create their own peaceful visualization. They can do this by filling out a simple worksheet that you can create in just a few minutes! How to…
To remember a happy experience fully and mindfully is to savor, or appreciate it. And there are so many physical, emotional and cognitive benefits from thinking about those experiences. We can savor a memory of an experience the same way we savor a yummy meal or a beautiful day. Appreciating happy memories release the same…
As a former School Counselor and a current Mindfulness Educator for children, when I work with High School students, I like to start off lessons by first writing a quip or a quote on the board. I have found that having a ritualistic beginning to each lesson not only brings on a sense of communal…
This past fall, I had the pleasure of teaching mindfulness education to students in two elementary schools and one high school in the San Francisco Bay Area. Among the many different lessons that teach students how to regulate strong overwhelming emotions, I found the Brain Sign to be the most effective and user friendly method…
By: Lisa Allen It was a Saturday afternoon in San Francisco. In the midst of an episode of January teacher burnout, I found myself at a music teacher’s training workshop with one of my favorite proponents of Orff-Schulwerk, Doug Goodkin. Orff-Schulwerk is a child- centered approach…
In this instructional video, Kate Janke, founder of Heart-Mind Education Project, gives simple and effective explanations and demonstrations for teaching mindful breathing to children, in the classroom or at home.
From Lisa I’m a music teacher in a public elementary school. We have one first grade class that seems to have had a tougher year than the others. The teacher said the kids are all quite immature for their age. I think she’s right. I also think that she has been with them too constantly…
From Carla Brooke April 2013 Just before leaving to teach mindfulness to the group of kindergartners at Coastside Chidlren’s Program, I fill up a bag with flowers. Yellow calendula, violet forget me knots and hummingbird sage. To illustrate the life cycle of a flower, I bring the hyacinth bulb that bloomed a few days ago. …
From Sam Shapiro A super fun, non-threatening technique–that also support community building–I love to use in my high school classes is called “Spectrum-Check-In.” This gets more to mindfulness of emotions, which is an important aspect of mindfulness to cultivate. Especially in pressurized, academic environments, often times students aren’t given enough guidance towards self-understanding and self-compassion,…
From Ryan Redman Hi All, Just thought I’d share a lesson that we use throughout the year at the Flourish Foundation called Kind Eyes, which is a alteration of an activity that I learned from Susan Kaiser Greenland called the Hello Game. Kind eyes can be a really nice way to start a session especially…
R.A.I.N I believe this acronym comes from Michelle McDonald, a Buddhist meditation teacher in the US. I’ve heard it used by many other meditation teachers as well, such as James Baraz and Andrea Fella. I’d like to pass it on as just another practical tool. When you (or your students/children) are experiencing difficult emotions, overwhelm,…
Whenever I get sick I find it to be a perfect demonstration of how little control I have over my experience. It also directly points to the nature of change and impermanence. One day I’m feeling fine, the next I’m in bed with a box of tissues. These are the teachings our body has to…
A young woman and dear friend recently told me a story about her path in life. I’ll call her Carly to keep her anonymity. Near the end of her freshman year Carly was taken out of school by her family and placed in a wilderness program for troubled youth located in the high deserts of Colorado. She…
Heart-Mind Community Hub 