[SevernK]

I have a kindergarten student who is exhibiting signs of anxiety (randomly crying, needs work to be perfect or meltdown, etc.). Does anyone know any techniques to help? I was beginning to look into mindfulness but don't know much about it. Thanks!

[eeza]

What have you learned about mindfulness? I am a yoga instructor and mindfulness is a huge part of it. I may be able to help!

[SevernK]

So far, I have been using these cards:https://www.amazon.com/Mindful-Kids-...dp/1782853278/
which provide short, daily mindfulness activities. They include games and visualizations to promote calmness, focus, and relaxation. I would love to include yoga as well! What insight do you have into mindfulness and yoga? Thanks!

[eeza]

The point of yoga is to do poses and focus on the breath and your body. You could incorporate simple yoga poses (warrior 1/2, bound angle, tree, etc.) and have the students focus their awareness on body sensation or their breath.

[TeachNFriend]

One helpful technique I’ve used (not sure of the actual name), I call; See, Hear, Feel. It’s a way to distract the mind from its negative thoughts and brings the child fully into the present. You find a quiet place and do a countdown of 5 things you can see (anything they can see around the room), hear (eg. the children in the hallway, the clock ticking, myself breathing) and feel (eg. my toes inside my shoes, the back of the chair holding me up, my fingers on my lap, etc...). Then you continue going through the cycle with 4, 3, 2, 1 things you see, hear, feel. By the time the activity is over, the child feels calmer and more grounded. I’ve done this with someone struggling with severe anxiety in grade 3 and when we had finished he exclaimed, “hey, that made me feel better!”.

There are also great apps for mindfulness. I’ve used Headspace which has free apps you can use to work with kids. The focus is on the breath.

[SevernK]

Thank you for the suggestion! I will definitely give this a try.

[Hpylife]

If you school has a guidance counselor, def get them on board. My class last year was full of emotional kiddos and a few on the spectrum with IEP's....
We had a calm corner in our room that I taught the kids how to use. They could go whenever they wanted to..it had a squishy seat to sink into, a sand timer, playdough, a story they could read to help with emotions, breathing cards, a stack of cards they could choose a calming strategy,etc...I also read tons of growth mindset types of books in my room...

There is a book called It's Great to help keep calm by Jordan Collins, and a there are a ton of other mindful type books out there to help with this...
GoNoodle has a bunch of mindful videos that help with controlling emotions/body that are really good--not only for that student struggling but just in general as a whole class calming strategy.

Some of my students would keep little stress balls on their desk and use as needed--(it's just a small balloon filled with a few spoons of regular flour and tied off) they can squeeze it to help calm and practice breathing deep for a minute...

Good luck!!