Mindfulness matters Week 2: Students take the 'spaghetti test'!

'I felt like I was so relaxed...like i was sinking in to the floor...'

So week 2 of the program and the teachers report that the children are really enjoying the mindfulness exercises and asking when they are going to do them in the day. The focus for this session was all about the body, recognizing pain and tension and trying to relax.

The Year 2s had a good shake then stopped, and discussed where their stop button would be if they had one, and when they might want to press it! They had a go at clenching and relaxing their fists, talked about when their body hurts and where, and finished off with some yoga exercises, stretching like a cat in the sun. We also tried sitting still like a frog again.

Its interesting that I can see almost a split developing between those who like doing the movements and those who like being still and breathing. Lets see how it goes over the next few weeks, if they come together, drift further apart, or if this flips completely?

Year 6 also had a focus on the body but at a more sophisticated level. After an extended sitting still like a frog we talked about recognising body signs of anger, happiness and worry. We finished off with the 'Spaghetti test' In this exercise the object was to help the students become relaxed as a plate of spaghetti! They lay down on the floor of the classroom with coats for pillows, and then received instructions to tense and relax different parts of their body, breathing out all their tension.

For a large number of the students this was very powerful. They commented on how relaxed they felt, how they felt like they were sinking through the floor...there were a lot of smiling faces! I've asked them to try it out if they feel stressed, or if they cant sleep, or just if they want to relax. Lets see how many of them have used it by next session! Nothing next week as its Chinese new year

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Cuddly Frogs and learning to Breathe: Week 1 of 'Mindfulness Matters' at Kowloon Junior School

--'You've got the talking stone, what did you think about the meditation?'

pause

--'You're frog is so cuddly!'

--'Brilliant!'

So the dangers of getting too plush a puppet for Year 2s are illustrated, but it was part of a wonderful process in fantastic opening sessions for year 2 and 6 at Kowloon Junior school. 

‘Mindfulness matters’ is an eight-week mindfulness/ Attention training course for children in primary schools.  The course teaches  how to be mindful or attentive. The half-hour lessons take place once a week at a set time  delivered by  a specially trained mindfulness teacher. In addition, 10-minute exercises are practiced on the other schooldays delivered by the class teacher.

One class in Year 6 and one  class in Year 2 will be piloting the course with some before and after data collected form the children, parents and teachers.

In year 2 the focus in the first session was on the introduction of the attention bells, the talking stone, breathing, and sitting still like a frog. The students were engaged and attentive, (despite the distractions of the plush frog!), with just a few finding it really hard to sit still. This is a difficult task for 7 year olds, but there were some great moments of calm and stillness. They loved the Breathing Rhyme:

B is for Breathing

Full of fresh air from up high

it comes in through your nose

and goes out again with a sigh (pppphhhhhhh) 

Suffice to say they were really easy to re-energise with the popcorn method at the end of the session!

In Year 6 the focus of the students was outstanding. They were interested and attentive from the outset, listening and applying a great degree of thought to any questions posed. They were really interested in a discussion about attention and memory and were so still during the first attempt at sitting still like a frog you would have thought they had practiced for years!

All told both groups were a credit to the school and I'm looking forward immensely to session 2!

The book accompanying the program ‘Sitting still like a frog: mindfulness exercises for kids (and their parents) is published by Shambhala, and available through Amazon or the Book depository.