Mindfulness Practices

Maria Johnson’s first graders are learning how to self-regulate through mindfulness practices that focus on using breathing exercises and positive thinking to stay focused. Mrs. Johnson shared, “Mindfulness is a way to regulate ourselves, both students and teachers so that we are in a place to learn and focus - it’s all about being present. It helps all children, but especially those who have trauma in their lives, learn how to stay in the present moment”. Mrs. Johnson first heard about using mindfulness practices in her classroom from her daughter who is a School Psychologist. Last June when Plumas Unified offered a professional development training day on mindfulness, Johnson was excited to take advantage of the opportunity. She shared, “The training gave me the tools I needed to implement the strategies into my classroom this fall”. The curriculum provided at the training is called MINDUP. The four strategic pillars of the MINDUP curriculum are neuroscience, mindful awareness, positive psychology, and social-emotional learning.

Johnson started off the school year by teaching her students about their brains and the different parts that are used when we feel stressed and upset, versus calm and focused.
She shared, “All my students can now recite and understand the differences between the Amygdala, which is where stress happens, the …show more content…
This is demonstrated to the students through the analogy of a bucket. “We were all born with this invisible empty bucket that we get to fill with positive and good feelings”, Johnson explained. “Our buckets can be filled by ourselves, by others, and emptied by negative behaviors. Ways to fill our buckets include showing kindness to others, befriending someone new, telling our parents we love them, doing something nice for someone else, and vice versa. Behaviors that empty our buckets are mean and hurtful behaviors towards others or hurtful behaviors that others show