How to Be Mindful at Home

The lessons in this unit help kids understand and practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is to purposefully pay attention to your breathing, feelings, senses, or actions in the present moment. When a child is mindful, they increase their ability to regulate emotions, manage stress, and self-motivate. You can vary the ways your students practice being mindful each day. Some of the many fit resources available for daily mindfulness practice include:

• Mindful Moments Cards
• fitFlow Yoga
• 5 Senses in 5 Minutes Grounding Exercise for Kids Video
• Animal Breathing Techniques Video
• Positive Self-Talk Coloring Pages
• Relax With Dakota: A Mindful Meditation for Kids-Video

Explain to students that they can use their breath to overcome frustration. Model the figure-8 breathing. Trace a figure-8 in the air, inhaling on one side, then exhaling as you move to the other side. Repeat several times.

To use this with your students click here.

Mindful at Home

Use the slideshow to guide a class discussion about times students feel frustrated, both at school and at home.

At school it may be trying to do something new and not succeeding. At home it might be when they are told it’s their bedtime and they want to finish what they are doing.

How to Be Mindful at Home

Explain to students that they can be mindful throughout their day—at both school and home! For example, they can use their senses when trying a new food, do mindful breathing to relax or calm down, or a tense and relax exercise when they want to relax or can’t fall asleep.

Check for Understanding: What can you do to be mindful at home?(Students give examples of purposefully paying attention to breathing, feelings, senses, or actions in the present moment.)

What mindful choices can kids make at home?

Encourage students to take a set of Mindful Moments cards home and practice mindful activities.

Students turn to a partner and talk about when and where they will practice being mindful by choosing a Mindful Moment card.