Hi, I'm Lisa Thomas Prince I'm an outreach specialist at the Center for
healthy minds. When our education research team is carrying out research
in the community
I'm one of the teachers to provide training and mindfulness and well-being
skills for students and teachers
One of the projects i've been working on is with a curriculum called the kindness
curriculum which was designed specifically for kids ages four to six
it's a series of lessons that shares mindfulness and kindness activities with
kids and their research so far has shown benefits for kids in terms of their
attentional skill,s being able to focus on school work in the classroom, and
their ability to manage their emotions and their bodies which is always a
challenge for young learners, as well as a pro-social and sharing kinds of
behaviors with their classmates. One of the activities that is incorporated in
the curriculum is mindful movement of the body and so we're going to be
sharing with you today some of our mindful movements that we do with kids.
So we're going to do some mindful movements with our bodies today. Do you
guys like to move your bodies?
>>Yes >> Yes, all right can you tell me what this animal is? >>An elephant
>> An elephant! You're right! have you seen an elephant before?
>> Yes
>> Yeah, what do elephants have in the front of their face? >>A trunk
>> A large trunk! Can you take your arms and make a trunk with your long arms? And we're going to
pretend we're elephants
alright? So we're going to take our long trunk and you know what we're going to
do? We're going to reach down into the big pot of water and we're going to sip
some water through our trunk
all right and then we're going to take our trunk way up, we're going to spray the
water out of our truck can you spray the water out from side to side
Look at that! Way to go. You guys did a great job with elephants
Alright, do you know what this animal is?
do you know what this animal is? >> A bird >An eagle.
>> You are right that's an eagle
have you seen an eagle fly before? Eagles have been a look at that they have big --
Look at that they have big wings
We're going to take our big wings and when we're going to reach them way up
and go up on your tiptoes and then down to the ground
can you pretend you're flying like an eagle?
you look like you're looking down from way up high in the sky
you are great Eagles! One more time
arms up wings up. Great job.
all right we're going to come down onto the mat for this one
these are two animals we are going to do together-- >>Snake >> A snake, right, you know how
to be a snake?
Look at that. Yes!
Snakes go on the ground right? So you know what we're going to do for snake? We are going to
take our hands underneath
we're going to lift our back up just a little bit like a Cobra
and then we're gonna be a snail
Yes snails go into with their shells. You can rest your body right here in your shell
see if you can feel your breath in your body do you feel your breath expanding
back here? Let me see if I can feel your breath.
I feel your back moving
Can I feel your breath in your snail?
yeah
You know how at the zoo all of the animals need water right?
Yeah and you know those big hoses that they used to give the animals water?
Yeah first of all take your hands like this. We're going to take our hands, and we
are going to tighten our arms are really really tight and then we're going to
release it like all the water goes out of the hose
are you ready? Tighten-- oh my gosh you are really tightening! Tighten tighten
tighten tighten! Ready? And then, let it all out like the water out of the hose
Want to try that again? Tighten tighten tighten tighten
good job tightening and let all the water out
yeah we try that with our legs too? Lets sit with our legs straight out. Can you
tighten all of the muscles in your legs? Make them really really tight all the
way through and
let it all out like-- you were even tightening your toes in your shoes?
>>Me too! >>You were? Let's try again. Ready? Tighten tighten tighten everything even the toes
and then
good job
now let's try it with our whole bodies are you ready 123
tighten everything up hands and and legs and toes and fingers and face and... nice job.
Thanks for joining us
if you're interested in learning more there are lots of resources available
online
I hope that you have fun exploring mindful movements like these with the
kids in your life