Lesson 5. Connecting With Our Positive Qualities
Guided Breathing Exercise | 5:00 | Alternate Nostril Breathing
This simple breathing exercise brings fresh energy to both sides of the brain. Benefits can also include increased focus and concentration.
Educators |
Explain to children we are going to do our breathing through our left nostril and right nostril.
Also, remind students to sit with their mindful bodies on and spine tall like a mountain. Now gently breathe in and slowly breathe out letting go of any tension they can feel in their mind and body.
Let's Begin |
- Invite your students to close their RIGHT NOSTRIL with their right thumb and breathe out through the LEFT NOSTRIL. Slowly exhaling out as much air as possible.
- Now invite your students to slowly breathe deeply IN through their LEFT NOSTRIL counting to 4.
- Now invite students to close their LEFT NOSTRIL with their right index finger and let go of the thumb on the RIGHT NOSTRIL
- NOW Invite students to BREATHE OUT through their RIGHT NOSTRIL
- NOW invite students to BREATHE IN through their RIGHT NOSTRIL counting to 4.
Lets alternate and swap again. Practising breathing out and in through our left and right nostrils for 3 breathes each side.
When you have finished take 3 deep breaths through both nostrils and release the air gently allowing your breath to return to normal.
Reflection |
- How did it feel doing that style of breathing?
- Do you feel much calmer now?
Mindfulness Lesson | 5:00 | Connecting With Our Positive Qualities
Learning Objectives: Emotional self-regulation, focused attention, resilience, executive functioning, stress reduction, open-mindedness, contentment, cognitive flexibility.
Educators |
Today we are supporting and assisting students to get in touch with POSITIVE QUALITIES that they need to thrive and grow. Students are encouraged to choose positive qualities they wish to develop and explore within themselves. Once they recognise what these positive qualities are, they can draw on these qualities and practise their development and self-growth.
Preparation |
Prior to class, decide on a few positive qualities you wish to highlight in today’s sessions.
For example |
You may wish to focus on qualities such as kindness, focus, calmness. You may wish to bring in pictures or images of animals or people that exemplify these things. For example someone like a carer or charity worker doing an act of kindness, a bear nursing its cub, an athlete focused before a game, a tightrope walker focusing as they walk the rope, a child calmly reading a book.
Or, feel free to invite the students to think about the qualities they would like to cultivate in themselves, rather than telling them which ones we think we need to develop.
Let’s Begin |
- Let students know that we have many wonderful qualities inside of us. There are some we are already good at, and some wonderful qualities we need to develop.
- Share some printed pictures of people or animals that exemplify some POSITIVE QUALITIES. You may wish to ask the students to guess or identify the positive quality being presented in the picture.
- Ask the students to brainstorm what a positive quality is and write a list on the board as they come up with ideas.
Here is a list of ideas |
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Adventurous |
Forgiving |
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Calm |
Gentle |
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Caring |
Grateful |
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Cheerful |
Joyful |
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Considerate |
Optimistic |
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Creative |
Patient |
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Thoughtful |
Responsible |
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Energetic |
Self Confident |
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Motivation |
Trusting |
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Friendly |
Well behaved |
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Enthusiastic |
Thoughtful |
Mindfulness Exercise | 5:00 | Connecting With Our Positive Qualities
Educators |
For this execise, you may wish to begin with a quality selected by your students or a quality from the list above. You may show images of a mountain climber or athlete and ask students to guess the positive quality.
For Example |
- Invite students to put on their mindful bodies and imagine someone whom they know who represents MOTIVATION in their minds. It could be a friend, teacher, athlete, performer, or a world leader.
- Invite the students to close their eyes and picture this person doing something with MOTIVATION and true determination. Now ask the students to picture themselves in this person’s shoes. Ask them to imagine that they are as motivated as this person.
- Next invite students to imagine someone who is very KIND, for example, a nurse, grandparents a friend or neighbour. Ask them to picture this person doing kind deeds and going through their day with KINDNESS.
- Then invite students to put themselves into this person’s shoes and imagine they are kind and generous. Have them check into their bodies and see and feel what it is like to be so kind.
- Ask students to imagine someone who is very PEACEFUL. Again, this person they imagine is always PEACEFUL whether life is crazy, busy or calm.
- Ask students to imagine this person going through their day PEACEFULLY and notice how this person acts. Now ask students to imagine themselves stepping into this person’s shoes, going about their day so peacefully and balanced.
Reflection |
Let your students know they can do this exercise with any POSITIVE QUALITY that they want to cultivate the most. Ask them to choose a person that exemplifies a POSITIVE QUALITY they want to strengthen in themselves and use this person to charge the battery of that specific quality within them.
For example, if they want to be more SELF CONFIDENT they can call to mind their SELF CONFIDENT mentor and visualise their mentor strengthening SELF CONFIDENCE like charging a battery in their body.
Ask your class what POSITIVE QUALITY they would like to work on and if there is time practise the exercise one more time.
Remember to practise your meditation
Guided Meditation | 15.00 | It’s great to be me.
It's great to be me is a beautiful meditation that reminds children how calming it is to totally let go, slowing down from their busy lives, concerns and worries. Our children are so amazing and they make everyone around them feel special, it is so important they can have a sense of freedom, with no expectations.
Reflection |
- Did anyone have a favourite message in this meditation?
- What do you like about what you heard?
Mindful Game | I'm So Grateful For Toilet Paper Game!
Learning Objectives |
- Confidence
- Cultivating Positive Attitudes
- Increasing Self Esteem
- Self Awareness and Gratitude
Educators |
Before you begin you will need
- A Dice or A Large Paper Dice. ( Download - firstpalette.com )
- Whiteboard
- Markers
Write statements on the whiteboard -
- ROLL NO 1 - Today I am thankful for……
- ROLL NO 2 - The thing I did really well today was…..
- ROLL NO 3 - I feel really good about myself when……
- ROLL NO 4 - Something I would like other people to know about me is….
- ROLL NO 5 - One of my most positive qualities is…..
- ROLL NO 6 - Something nice I recently did for someone else was…..
Let's Begin |
- Ask students to sit in a circle so they can all see the whiteboard with the statements.
- Let students know that in this game we will be practising CONNECTING with our POSITIVE QUALITIES and POSITIVE ACTIONS.
- Each student has a turn rolling the dice, then they must read out that statement on the whiteboard, completing the statement as honestly as they can.
- Let the students know they only have 10 seconds to complete the statement and can not repeat an answer already used by a previous student. This keeps the game flowing and fun.
- If a student can not complete a sentence they can sit with their legs out in front and wait for the next game to begin.
Note |
Explain to students it sometimes takes practise to see POSITIVE QUALITIES in ourselves and to BELIEVE IN OURSELVES.
Invite your students to close their eyes and focus on all the great things that make them amazing, today and every day, because sometimes we forget to do this.
Now begin a second or third game in the opposite direction.
Reflection |
- Was that game hard or easy?
- Would the game be easier if we spent more time thinking about our POSITIVE QUALITIES?
Mindful Journal | PNG Format |
Educators |
Slide your students' journal to your desktop and print.
