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Top Tips for Making Your School’s Mindfulness Program a Success: Engaging Staff and Parents
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yoga at our morning meeting with the children i think would be a good way to start adding mindfulness to my classroom
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Great idea, Sarah! Incorporating yoga can foster mindfulness and set a positive tone for the day.
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I really like that nature walk idea!
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Great suggestion, Kim! Nature walks are a wonderful way to promote mindfulness and connect with the environment.
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I will add more nature and mindfulness walks into our day. Sharing this plan with coworkers and families and inviting them to engage.
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Great idea, Madeline! Nature walks are a wonderful way to foster mindfulness and involve the community. Keep it up!
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I like the idea of activities that correlate to different sensations or emotions that require the children to take some time to check in with themselves. I also like the idea of parents taking a minute before bed to do breathing exercises with their kids to show that deep breathing/mindful breathing helps calm you down.
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Great suggestions, Gwen! Activities focused on sensations and parent-child breathing exercises foster mindfulness and emotional awareness effectively.
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To keep families interested in mindfulness we have to have results. Maybe incorporating a short song the children can use at home themselves would show they are picking it up and using it well.
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We do yoga pretzels right before our lesson in the afternoon to help engage the kids more and get our body and blood moving. We also have a small blue beach ball that we take turns passing while giving examples of being a ready, respectful and responsible friend.
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I have a variety of sensory jars, and sand gardens to be used in the classroom and some that can even go home with students to be used at home. I now have a variety of breathing exercises we can share with parents to try at home. I also have several yoga poses that can be done in the classroom and at home. I also have a variety of wonderful story books that can be read aloud in class and checked out by parents to be read at home. I also have playdough, paints and shaving cream that teachers can use in the classroom to make creative projects with mindfulness intent such as focusing on soothing color schemes or textures. Each classroom also has its own chime.
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Great ideas, Thea! Incorporating sensory materials and breathing exercises fosters mindfulness both at school and home. Well done!
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I love the idea of mindfulness nature walks!
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Great idea, Thea! Mindfulness nature walks can foster connection and awareness for both kids and adults.
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Share weekly mindfulness tips or activities with parents and staff. For instance, in our newsletter or add it to parent updates. Incorporating everyone when possible in mindfulness activities. Or even taking a break and taking a short stroll with the kids.
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Implementing a weekly or monthly newsletter with tips and activities can help staff and families to be on the same page, and help create consistency for the kids in our care.
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Send home or email parents a list of ways to incorporate mindfulness into their day, whether that is before they drop their kids off at school or at dinner time or bedtime.
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Maybe a way we can do this through curriculum. We can have our “feelings curriculum” and send out information on what it means to be mindful and how we can practice it for ourselves but also with our children. Then challenge them to choose one activity and have them write about what they did, how it went and how it felt for each of them. We could then discuss it as a group during circle time and further the conversation and be more personalized.
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I would love to incorporate a follow along breathing exercise daily in my class to help keep the kids focus later on in the day.
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we have a newsletter and I think it would be a good idea to maybe use some of the mindfulness ideas that we might be using in the classroom and incorporating that into the newlesletter. This would also help the parents do exactly as we are doing in the classroom so that the children can have consistency at home and in classroom.
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Great idea, Gabriela! Incorporating mindfulness practices into the newsletter fosters consistency and strengthens home-school connections.
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TEACHING PARENTS SO MANY WAYS OF BREATHING TO HELO CALM THE KIDS IS SOMETHING THEY CAN ALSO DO AT HOME AND CAN MAKE IT A THING THAT THEY DO AT SCHOOL AND HOME SO WE CAN BE ON THE SAME PAGE
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Great idea, Sherry! Engaging parents with breathing techniques fosters consistency and strengthens the home-school connection for mindfulness.
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