Mindfulness Club: The story of how a teacher took her mindfulness club online

Today’s story has been graciously written by Cassandra Troughton, a teacher’s assistant working in a special education classroom in Canada.

Mindfulness came into my life as I was deep into my own self-education. I began practicing mindfulness, along with the techniques and aspects associated with being mindful and present. I started going to yoga, began meditating, found opportunities throughout the day to stay present and truly be in the moment, and opened up my heart in expressing gratitude more often. 

Mindfulness had changed my life immensely. It developed me as a human being in ways that going to school never had. It became a part of my life. It was a tool I used to get myself through the busy and hectic days working in an elementary special needs classroom. My job was fun and rewarding, but it took a lot out of me. Practicing daily mindfulness was the key.

Three years ago, my self-education journey sent me on a documentary binge. I watched a few documentaries, not just about mindfulness, but about bringing mindfulness into schools. Every documentary I watched, every book and article I read that promoted mindfulness, yoga, and meditation in schools intrigued me, because in every example, children benefited hugely, in all aspects of life! 

This, of course, lead me to the realization that mindfulness should be a daily practice in ALL schools for ALL children, and although I may not have had the control to change that in all schools in an instant, I did have the control to change that within MY school at least. 

The very next day, I chatted with my teacher partner about what I had learned and how practicing daily mindfulness could benefit our students. 

Step One: Daily Mindful Moments

We created a plan to host “Mindful Moments” in a spare classroom right after the morning bell. These “Mindful Moments” would be offered to any student who needed some extra time to decompress in the morning before settling in to class. 

We ran it Monday to Friday from 8:35 to 8:45 a.m. before school started:

• On Mondays, we quietly and mindfully colored gratitude notes and put them in a jar to be read at the end of the week. 
• Tuesdays to Thursdays were a mix of meditations, guided breathing techniques, relaxation activities, and yoga and stretching games. 
• Fridays were for reading our gratitude notes and sharing them by posting them on the wall. 

What started off as a trickle of kids soon became an entire class full of kids. There was even one teacher who bought her class EVERY morning.

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Step Two: Weekly Mindfulness Club at School

The following year, I had more of my own time to commit to developing some sort of mindfulness class and resources for our students to access. I decided to turn mindfulness into a Mindfulness Club, which ran Monday, Wednesday, and Friday during afternoon recess. 

I knew I wanted to introduce so much more in our Mindfulness Club, but I didn’t want to throw all that information out to our kiddos at once. Instead, I decided to create themed days for the club. 

• Monday would be “Mindful Mondays,” and on this day, we would do breathing activities, guided relaxations, short meditation practices, etc. It was our day of silence and breath.
  
• Wednesdays became our “Wind-Down Wednesdays,” and they were days for activities like mindful coloring, reading stories on mindfulness, doing kindness/empathy fostering activities, and holding sharing circles.
  
• Fridays turned into “Flexy Fridays,” and those days were by far, the most favorite themed day. Flexy Fridays were days filled with yoga and stretching activities. These days began usually with a Yoga Pose of the Day we would all learn together, and afterwards, on some days, we would do a yoga video, play a yoga game, or read a yoga story. On other days, we did partner yoga or took turns leading yoga sequences. 

The kids loved it, and our little mindfulness crew bigger and bigger each year. 

There were a few things I did consistently each day in Mindfulness Club, regardless of what themed day it was; I began and ended my club the same each day. 

• For the beginning of each Mindfulness Club, we would gather in a circle and take one (or a few) deep breath(s) together before we broke off into whichever activity was to follow. 

• We ended each Mindfulness Club meeting with a quick body scan. I would have kids sit down and close their eyes and notice their body and how it felt after the club, and afterward, when they noticed how they felt, each would do a feeling check-in with me, either by saying how they felt or gesturing with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. 

For a while I used a scale of 1-5 system and for two years, I tracked the average of all my students’ happiness levels! It wasn’t a perfect system, but I could eventually see trends. It helped me adjust my Club to the needs of the group.

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Step Three: Online Mindfulness Club

Unfortunately this year, school was shut down due to the current pandemic, and my students, who had found a safe place in Mindfulness Club, were stuck at home and stuck in their thoughts and left feeling anxious and isolated. 

I felt for them, and I wondered if there was a way for me to move Mindfulness Club onto a website, where students could still feel somewhat connected and be able to do grounding practices at home. At this time, more than ever, I believe mindfulness was needed for my students. 

Soon after, my idea became a reality. I created my website: Mindfulness Club ONLINE! 

In this new version of Mindfulness Club, I have been trying to stick with my original themes as much as I can. I make new posts each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday filled with mindfulness activities, videos, and games, fun for the whole family to do at home. 

On this site, I’ve added some other fun resources, and there’s even a virtual Gratitude Wall,where kids can submit notes of gratitude, and their posts will be featured at the end of the week. 

Recently, I purchased the Keep Calm Pack and Get Connected Pack from Kids Yoga Stories. These packs come with a ton of resources that I am able to use on each and every theme day. 

It’s been a ton of fun to build and put this site together, and it was actually easier than I expected (thanks to the wealth of resources I acquired from Kids Yoga Stories). 

I hope my Mindfulness Club will inspire or give others ideas on how to spread some of these essential mindfulness practices out there. If anyone would like to connect or has any questions, I am more than willing to help!

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Step Four: Resources for Mindfulness Club

As Cassandra mentioned above, here are the two packs she used for her Mindfulness Club:

#1: Quarantine Super Pack 

This super pack includes the Keep Calm Pack and Get Connected Pack that Cassandra mentions above, plus the Home PE Pack. The resources in this pack help us to keep calm, get connected and be active and are perfect for all three days, including Mindful Mondays, Wind-Down Wednesdays, and Flexy Fridays.

#2: Slow Down Pack

This pack includes resources to help slow us down and is perfect for the Mindful Mondays and Wind-Down Wednesdays.

Download the printable (see below) to see which resources would suit which days in your mindfulness club.

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DOWNLOAD POSTER HERE >>

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Check Out the Quarantine Super Pack

Parenting and teaching (and oftentimes both!) can be challenging during this time. Helping your kids during this stressful time requires more than plopping them in front of their devices and hoping they’ll figure it out. We need to provide some simple exercises and fun ways to move, calm, and focus while building their resilience muscle.

This super pack provides:

• movement, activities, and stretches to get kids interested and active
• tools and strategies to foster calm and focus and decrease stress
• new tools for managing big emotions due to new routines
• an alternative to screen time and online-based PE programs
• ways to connect with your kids in fun and lasting ways
• fresh strategies to teach resilience and boost self-esteem
• simple solutions to tame transition times and subject changes
• an antidote for all the screen time and technical issues that come with home-based learning

This bundle of 3 individual packs was created as a response to these challenging times!

PACK 1: KEEP CALM PACK

• Positive Affirmation Cards for Kids
• Energizing Yoga Cards for Kids
• Simple Meditations for Kids (book + audio files)
• Breathing Exercises for Kids Posters
• (Total Value: $49.80)

PACK 2: GET CONNECTED PACK

• Adult-Child Partner Poses Cards
• Superhero Partner Pose Cards
• 25 Group Yoga Poses Cards
• DIY Yoga Games for Small Groups
• Breathe-Calm-Connect Minideck
• Partner Yoga Pose Poster
• Yoga Ideas for Homeschool
• (Total Value: $46.75)

PACK 3: HOME PE PACK

• “Yogi Says…” & Other Easy Yoga Games
• Simple Yoga Sequences for Kids (Book 2)
• Yoga Poses for Kids Cards (Deck 3)
• Healthy Mind + Strong Bodies Posters
• Energizing + Calming Activities Poster
• (Total Value: $59.75)

Learn more and download your Quarantine Super Pack here.

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Check Out the Slow Down Pack

Make the time to slow down.

When you’re hustling to get everything done in a day, it’s important to take the time to slow down with your children.

What better way to teach our kids how to slow down than to introduce them to calming, restorative yoga poses, breathing exercises, and meditation.

This pack of 7 resources will help children relax, breathe, and be present in the moment.

• Sloth Yoga Cards
• Restorative Yoga Cards for Kids
• Calming Yoga Cards for Kids
• Breathing Exercise Cards for Kids
• Bedtime Meditations for Kids

Download Slow Down Pack here.

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PIN IT FOR LATER

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