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At the SCBWI conference in New Orleans, I met Whitney Stewart. She is a nonfiction writer. I bought her book, Meditation is an Open Sky: Mindfulness for Kids. Whitney has practiced meditation throughout her life, but only recently turned this love into a picture book and mindfulness teaching.
Earlier this week I used her book as our read aloud. I found meditation music online, turned out the lights, gathered pillows, and asked my students to settle down for meditation. This was easier for some more than others. One student opted to sit in his desk and put his head down. Another opted to continue writing a slice. But a few sat cross-legged on pillows, closed their eyes, and listened to the meditation prompt from the book.
There was movement. There were giggles. Meditation was a new idea, an awkward idea. This may take a while to get the hang of.
I read two of the meditation exercises. The second one, Protection Circle, asked the students to imagine a glowing ball of white light between their eyebrows. “Breathe out and send the light out of your forehead to surround your body.” Then we moved on to a red light in your throat and a blue light inside your heart. Each ball of light was breathed out to encircle you with light.
Following the meditation, Kaiden said to me, “I imagined the three balls of color were fear, anger, and sadness. But when they left my body, they looked like balls of fire.”
This morning, two of my students came into my room before school asking if they could meditate. Again they sat on pillows on the floor with lights out. I read another meditation from Whitney’s book. They said they felt calmer and more prepared to start their day.
Whitney’s meditation book is illustrated with child-like images of an elephant and a monkey. While reading aloud, the illustrations don’t matter. What matters is the space to clear the mind.
I don’t know if I’ll keep this up, but I wanted to try it. My students are especially stressed because they just completed 10 days of practice testing, and the actual state testing starts in two weeks. Meditation works for me. I’m glad to have a resource for passing it on to my students.
Wow. I’ll definitely have to give this a try. We’re knee-deep in test prep, and I want to help my students through this time of year.
This sounds like an amazing resource to use with students! What an opportunity you are giving them, to practice mindfulness in the middle of a busy and hectic school day! YAY!!
I’m afraid I would be the one awkward and giggling. Even though my OLW is mindfulness, doesn’t mean I can meditate.;-) I know it’s a wonderful practice, though, and even if all the kids don’t like or get it, you’ve introduced something valuable, and a few will!
Our guidance counselor does this with all of our students! They do take it seriously and I see a lot of them trying little moves during our school day. It is great! Keep trying it out!
This sounds like a marvelous idea to try with my students too Thanks for sharing.
Wow, ten days of practice would make me jittery too. How lovely that you did this now, and then had that response this morning. You are so thoughtful, Margaret.
Much research on using mindfulness in schools. I first practiced key yoga poses with my classes 20 years ago. Great results. More recently, I have introduced meditation specifically for the purpose of helping kids with ADHD, but with the knowledge that all kids benefit and the day is more peaceful. You are giving them strategies for life, and they are very lucky kids. Keep going. It is worth it!
Thanks for the reinforcement. I want to keep it going, at least through testing.
Thank you for sharing this, Margaret. I’ve read articles about using meditation and/or yoga with kids, but haven’t tried it. This book sounds like the introduction I’ve been looking for.
Reading this book aloud makes me sound like an expert. They are beautiful meditations.
I do team builders on Wednesdays with my Yearbook group, and one day we did a meditation exercise. They loved it and want to do more!