Mindfulness and Yoga in Schools A Guide for Teachers and Practitioners

92 • PART II: MINDFULNESS IN EDUCATING FOR SELF-REGULATION AND ENGAGEMENT CHAPTER 5: THE MINDFUL CLASSROOM • 93

Teach to the Developmental Level and Age

Be mindful of the developmental capabilities of the students with whom you are working.

The manner in which tools are taught must match the developmental level of the students

for mindfulness programming to be effective, see Table 5.1.

To illustrate, Mrs. Jones, a second-grade teacher, began her mindfulness practice

2 years ago. After an in-service session on mindful schools, she feels ready to begin

teaching mindfulness to her second graders. She uses her own experience with medi-

tation to inform her mindfulness teaching; however, she does not stop to consider the

developmental level of her students and their neurological ability to pay attention. She

begins with a 10-minute guided meditation she has downloaded from a well-known

mindfulness resource page. It does not go well. She stops several times to redirect students

who are talking or fidgeting, and a student who gets out of his seat is given a time out.

After the 10 minutes, Mrs. Jones is exhausted, has yelled twice, which always feels bad,

and isn’t sure if mindfulness is a good idea. She rationalizes that her class this year feels

immature, and perhaps she will try this again next year with hopes of a more attentive

TABLE 5.1 Mindfulness Practice by Age

Age DevelopmentAl notes minDfulness prActice tips

Grades

K–2

• In preoperational/operational thought
  (need concrete examples and lived
  experiences)


• Use mindfulness practices to learn
  focus, self-regulation, and self-care


• Live in the present moment


• Reactive


• Unfiltered bare awareness


• Few self-limiting beliefs


• Eager, curious, and ready to learn
  
  
  • Mindfulness lessons 10–30 minutes
  
  
  • Present concept with a short practice
    (2–5 minutes)
  
  
  • Use props (breathing buddies)
  
  
  • Establish rituals and routines
  
  
  • Make it fun, safe, and warm
  
  
  • Don’t explain everything; let them
    experience
  
  
  • Help them see cause and effect
  
  
  • Keep practices embodied and filled
    with movement
    Grades
    3–5
  
  
  
  


• In operational thought (still need
  concrete examples and lived
  experiences, can learn some
  abstractions, can think about their
  thinking)


• Use mindfulness practices to learn
  focus, self-regulation, and self-care


• Learn in a step-by-step fashion


• Rational minds developing rapidly


• Emerging self-awareness


• Increased ability to describe emotions
  and physical states


• Beginning to wonder why they are
  learning things


• Eager to please


• Emerging impulse control


• High need for positive reflection


• Peers becoming very important


• Mindfulness lessons 10–30 minutes


• Can spend up to 10 minutes in silent
  practice


• Can begin to include dialogues and
  reflection time


• Use mindfulness journals


• Embodied games and practices are
  still important; engage through play


• Routine still important


• Stress related to testing and other
  pressures real for them


• Allow them to learn through
  experience, rather than telling them


• Give them the rational reason for
  learning a lesson

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