The students are excited to participate as mindfulness leaders! It's fun watching them ring the bell and feel proud that their classmates listen to their instructions. I think everyone has taken our mindfulness practice to heart now that they are involved in guiding what we do.
Today we talked about the fact that sometimes it is easy to stay focused on the breath while practicing mindfulness, and sometimes it can be difficult. The mind has a tendency to wander in many different directions; a student might think about what's for dinner, or plan what will happen after class is over. This is very normal, but with mindfulness we always want to gently bring ourselves back to the present moment.
Today I taught the students how to use anchor words to stay focused on the present. We used the phrase "breathing in" during the in-breath and "breathing out" during the out-breath. Just like the anchor of a ship, these words can help us stay connected to the present moment.
During the art part of our class, we started with a work-in-progress discussion! The students paired up and I asked them to give their partner two "stars" and one "wish". In this mini-critique, "stars" are compliments about the artwork and "wishes" are suggestions for making it better. Everyone was very respectful and engaged in the conversation.
Today we put the finishing touches on our
Romare Bearden-inspired artworks. Some children were still cutting and gluing collage elements, and everyone worked on adding color and detail to the backgrounds. Almost everyone finished, so here are the completed artworks!
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| 2nd Grade Artist |
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| Kindergarten Artist |
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| 2nd Grade Artist |
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| Kindergarten Artist |
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| Kindergarten Artist |
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| Second Grade Artist |
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| Second Grade Artist |
