Relaxation is a skill that promotes health and well-being for people of all ages- including kids! Too often in school, we are all rushing to get through our days, complete our work, and fix the problems that come up. It’s easy to forget that kids need time to relax and de-stress, too. There are many health benefits to practicing relaxation. It reduces feelings of worry and anxiety, increases blood flow to muscles, reduces feelings of chronic pain, improves concentration, reduces feelings of anger and frustration, and boosts self-esteem.
Use these five simple techniques to teach and promote relaxation in your classroom:
1. Play calming music during tests, quizzes, and independent work time. You can choose whether to use meditation music, nature sounds, or instrumentals. Not only will this promote a calming effect on the classroom, but it will help kids who struggle with attention, too. Background music can really help kids with attention issues, such as ADHD, since it allows them to focus on their task instead of always focusing on interfering background noises and interruptions.
2. Build a yoga time into your day or week. Kids actually love having a daily exercise or warm-up time. Yoga can address that need while encouraging a way to relax. Research shows that yoga can reduce feelings of sadness, anxiety, and depression. It helps kids and young adults develop coordination, focus, and self-awareness. If you aren’t comfortable teaching yoga on your own, there are many online videos and tutorials you could play for the class. To make it even easier on a teacher, you can use relaxation task cards with kids. The cards help students learn and practice strategies to help them feel more calm and relaxed. Some of the strategies focus on yoga techniques and postures, while others focus on visualizing and even being a little silly.
3. Practice meditation. After recess or a big activity, turn the lights off. Have kids sit at their desks, close their eyes, and just meditate. This is tough at first because kids honestly do not know how to calm their own bodies and minds. It can really help re-center kids, though, before getting back to work.
4. Teach mindfulness activities. Help kids and young adults practice mindfulness to help promote happiness, attention, and emotional control. Mindfulness activities can often include listening to music, coloring, practicing mindful breathing, learning to be present in the moment and much more. Use these mindfulness activities to find even more ways to practice mindfulness in your classroom.
5. Practice slow breathing techniques. Being able to control your breathing can really help you control your emotions and your thoughts at the same time. It can be fun to practice slow breathing to the beat of a drum or using a “breathe board” like shown below.
And while you are teaching kids to relax, make sure you give time for yourself to relax, too!
2. Give choices. Allowing a choice in an assignment or task gives kids power and helps them feel more in control of what they are accomplishing. Choice can mean choosing between two different worksheets, choosing their own lab group, or choosing whether to write or type an assignment. Consider finding a choice that fits a student’s individual strengths or interests. If a student isn’t motivated to write a research paper on a famous poet, allow them to present about their favorite musical artist. Instead of completing a lab report on cells, have your artistic student draw and label a diagram of a cell. It’s okay to think outside the box with this.
10. Use the word “yet”. When someone says, “I don’t know how to do this”, just add the word “yet”. Constantly reminding this encourages the idea that most things are possible with hard work, persistence, and time.
Not long after the “back to school” craze, students who struggle start to show their challenging behaviors. Behaviors such as being out of their seat, calling out, refusal to work, or arguing can really impact the flow and progress of the classroom. Other more serious behaviors, such as fighting, hitting others, biting, and running will also be significantly detrimental. As teachers, we have a LOT on our plates and can’t do everything all at once. These kids, though, are often calling for help in their own way. We owe it to them to work through the challenges, not only to improve our own classrooms but to help that student improve overall, too.
As teachers, we all want our students to learn, practice skills, and thrive. Time is certainly limited in our classes. Even critical academic time gets interrupted with so much from assemblies, to guest speakers, and even standardized assessments themselves. So, homework often seems to be a great way to get kids to practice those skills we have taught. It’s a deceiving idea, though. There is substantial research that extra homework is NOT the answer to getting children and young adults to learning more. In fact, sometimes overdoing the homework can have a pretty negative result, overflowing to the home and school the next day. Here are some thought provoking reasons why it is okay to reduce the homework.
Social skills are what allow people to communicate and interact positively with others. Most children learn these skills through positive role models, adult guidance, and interactions with others. They just learn them and the rest is pretty easy! Others, though, don’t pick up on the social skills that way. These are the kids who are getting into arguments with peers, like to follow their own set of rules, don’t see why they have to wait their turn, and sadly, often don’t have many (or any) real friends. Teaching social skills isn’t easy. It’s something extra you have to teach on top of everything else, so sometimes it gets forgotten or put off. It is, however, the most rewarding thing to teach because it REALLY makes a difference. It doesn’t happen quickly, but you can see a kid transform from being avoided by other kids to really being *liked* by his or her peers. That’s special, really.
