MINDFULNESS

IN
MIDDLE SCHOOL
Cayley van Aken

TABLE OF CONTENTS
About the Project

Defining Mindfulness

Mindful Minute

Short Mindfulness Exercises

Long Mindfulness Exercises

Research Findings

12

Appendix: Visualization Script

14

ABOUT THE PROJECT

This project was created as part of the University of Lethbridge program during my

final practicum at Calgary Girls School. During this practicum I taught a grade 8 option
called Yay You which focused heavily on mindfulness. After my initial approach to
mindfulness did not go over as well as I had hoped, I decided to research mindfulness and
experiment with different strategies to bring it to life in a middle school classroom. This
project is a compilation of the activities, strategies, and resources that I found most helpful
in my class. My goal for this project is to create a resource to assist other teachers wanting
to bring mindfulness into their classrooms as well.

DEFINING MINDFULNESS
Mindfulness has become such a buzz word that we sometimes throw it around
without sitting down and creating a definition first. According to Bas and Fisher,
mindfulness is more than being aware of your surroundings and calming down, it is also
about being aware of yourself and your thoughts in a non-judgmental way (567). Although
it important to focus on both of these aspects of mindfulness individually, ultimately both
elements are interconnected, as encouraging students to quiet their minds often result in
the thoughts that they are trying to avoid coming back even louder. It is by learning to
acknowledge these thoughts in a non-judgmental way before letting them go that allow
that inner sense of peace to really begin to grow.
It is also important to accept the mind as it is and where its at. Often during
mindfulness exercises the mind wants to wander, and that is fine, but always encourage
your students to gently redirect their thoughts to the activity at hand the moment they
realize that they have lost focus. Again, this plays into the non-judgmental acceptance of
yourself and your thoughts. A wandering mind does not make you bad at mindfulness, it is
not something to judge yourself on, but something to be aware of before moving past.
Ultimately there is no perfect universal definition of mindfulness because
mindfulness is an individual exercise of self-exploration and awareness. Each person
experiences mindfulness differently and what they take out of the exercises will be
different. Therefore, I encourage you to challenge yourself and your students to explore
mindfulness and create definitions that make sense for you. Below are some of my
students working definitions of mindfulness.
Mindfulness is when you take the time to recognize yourself and let the stress go.

Mindfulness is about calming down and leaving all the stress and problems behind you. Its
where you come to a solution and have some time to yourself.

Mindfulness to me means to become aware of your thoughts and emotions and dealing with
that in the healthiest way possible.

The feeling of being in sync with your mind and body and having a sense of realization and
awareness.

MINDFUL MINUTE
A mindful minute is a strategy that I used each day with my Yay You class. For us, it
is a way to begin and end your class that puts students in the headspace to learn. Every
mindful minute has the same formula of chime, mindfulness exercise, chime; but there is a
lot of room for variety and individualization for the class and moment. Encourage your
students to commit to the mindful minute and not allow themselves to be distracted by
peers by orienting themselves away from others or closing their eyes.
1. Chime
We begin mindfulness practice with the sound of a chime or bell, which is meant to
draw students attention to the sound and settle their minds as they prepare for
mindfulness. The chime rings for 30-45 seconds, during which students are silent
and listening only to the sound. There are a variety of chimes, singing bowls, bells,
and other instruments that can be used for this purpose as well as different websites
that offer the same noise. The chime becomes a reminder to stop and draw attention
to your breath, your body, and your mind. It is very important to only use the chime
for this purpose so that it always signals a moment of mindfulness.
2. Mindfulness Exercise
Mindfulness exercises can have take variety of forms including visualization,
breathing exercises, or silence. There are a variety of exercises below in the short
mindfulness exercises section that can be used for this purpose.
3. Chime
The chime rings again and brings students back to the present moment and their
bodies. Students stretch, open their eyes, and return to the class. When you can no
longer hear the chime, the mindful minute is over.

SHORT MINDFULESS EXERCISES

The following are short 1-5 minute exercises that can be used as part of a mindful
minute or as a brief pause any time during your teaching.

Square Breathing

Square breathing is a great, tangible exercise to

help teach breathing to students. Students start by

breathing in for four counts, holding it for four counts,
breathing out for four counts, and then holding for
four counts. During all breathing exercises, encourage
students to breathe in with their noses and out with
their mouths. When introducing this strategy, include
a manipulative for students to touch to signal the four
sides of the square. I used square pieces of cardstock,
but small tiles or even post it notes are great for this

Source: dharmaineverywave.com

activity. Students trace the square in their hand as they complete each step. Remind
students that they can use this strategy at any time even if they do not have a manipulative
by tracing the square on their palm.
Add-ons and adaptations:
During the hold portions, have students think of something they are grateful or
thankful for

Other Breathing Exercises
Whenever you teach a breathing exercise, remind students to breathe in through
their nose and out through their mouth. Focusing on breathing can be a good way to begin
mindfulness practice as it focuses students on their body and being present in the moment.
It can help when introducing these ideas to walk students through the process by narrating
the breaths.
Add-ons and adaptations:

 Counting breaths up to 10, either counting each exhale or counting both the inhale
and exhale. When you reach 10, just stop and return to one.

Visualizations
Visualizations are essentially guided mediation and they are helpful to get students
out of their heads and focusing on a specific place, journey, or emotion. Visualizations are
great if youre nervous to approach mindfulness because they are scripted to be focused
and purposeful. There are hundreds of excellent scripts available online, but an example
can be found in the appendix (page 14) for convenience.
When introducing visualizations, encourage students to free themselves from the
influence of their peers, this can mean orienting themselves toward a wall or closing their
eyes. When reading the visualization script, remember to take long pauses and speak
slowly and softly.
My favourite source for visualization scripts is Inner Health Studio. They have a lot
list of visualizations available here: innerhealthstudio.com/visualization-scripts.html

Walking and Step Counting
We walk all the time, so arming students with mindfulness strategies related to
walking can be extremely powerful. I introduced walking exercises by having my students
think of a negative thought and staying with that thought until they began to notice
symptoms of it (anger, fear, frustration etcetera). I then have students stand up and walk
around the room and count their steps with great accuracy before sitting back down. When
asked what happened to the negative thought, students mentioned some form of it went
away. This is meant to prove the power of walking meditation in shifting our focus away
from even the most powerful thoughts and bringing us into the present moment.
The most important part of walking exercises is that there is great focus and care
placed on the activity, whether that is counting or repeating a word in your head, to
prevent your mind from wandering. This focus fills our minds with the task at hand rather
than the other thoughts floating around in our heads.

Add-ons and adaptations:

As students are walking, have them mentally say step every time their foot hits the
floor
Have students count each step
Have students count each step up to four and then return to one
Combine walking and breathing exercises

Video and Audio Examples
There are many different audio and video guides that can be excellent short
mindfulness exercises and resources. My personal favourite is Headspace. This app and
website are amazing for a huge range of activities. They have a free Take Ten podcast on
their app that are great 10 minute mindfulness exercises, but also shorter videos on their
YouTube channel that range from short mediations to animation explanations of
mindfulness. Below are some of my favorites.
Underling calm http://bit.ly/1Dg8WVB
Mini Mediations Let go of stress http://bit.ly/2gAQgfM
Kindness how to be nicer to yourself http://bit.ly/2h6o9Gi

Silence
As the class went on, my students began to ask for our mindful minute to be
composed of complete silence. They said it allowed them to do what they needed to do in
that time and at their own pace. As I said earlier, mindfulness is an entirely individual
experience and each person needs different things in that space. Once your students are
comfortable with mindfulness and breathing exercises, try two minutes of silence as your
short mindfulness exercise and encourage students to use the techniques youve taught
them for their own purposes.

LONG MINDFULESS EXERCISES

The following are longer, 10-30 minute exercises that can be used as a longer break
for students to pause, reflect, and collect themselves.

Journaling
Journals and reflective writing in general have great power to bring forward many
thoughts that are playing on the mind, acknowledge them in a non-judgmental way, and
then move on. In many cases I have asked my students to reflect in a journal and then rip
the paper up. This not only allows them to feel safe writing whatever is on their mind
because no one will ever have a chance to read the journals, but also demonstrates the
importance of reflecting on thoughts but then moving on.
It is important to remind students not to judge their thoughts, but simply to notice
and reflect on them before letting them go. Where do the thoughts come from? How do
they make you feel? How have they impacted your actions?
Usually my journal prompts are composed of two questions and the first is always
what is your mental landscape today? This question encourages students to think
about what is on their mind at that moment. What is puzzling them? What is on the horizon
good, bad, or indifferent? What are they focusing their energy on at this moment? I
always encourage students to fully devote themselves to this prompt and, if I have provided
a second prompt, it is only if you feel that you have exhausted the first and still have time to
spare.

If you want to include a second prompt, here are a few examples:
What are you grateful for today?
What are you looking forward to this week or month?
What does being mindful look like or feel like to you?
What parts of your life are the most distracting? What pulls you out of mindfulness
and why?
Where do you make space for mindfulness in your life? What do you do to recharge?

Letters to Your Future Self

This was the activity that actually prompted this entire project! I had students write
a letter to themselves in January that explained where they were at in that moment and
where they hoped the next few months would take them. This activity was powerful
because it allowed students to really reflect on what they wanted to get out of this
mindfulness class and this semester as a whole as well as pinpoint specific stressors in
their lives right now. We sealed the letters in envelopes and plan on opening them on the
day of classes.

Yoga
Although it is not everyones cup of tea, yoga is a great way to relax, destress, and
focus on your body in the present moment. Yoga can be challenging, but it is important to
encourage students to do the best they can do with where they are at, just like mindfulness.
If you cant touch your toes, do the best that you can! Also, if a pose is uncomfortable,
rather than overexert yourself, rest in childs pose (kneeling with big toes touching and
knees apart, head resting on the floor, and arms stretched straight in front of you) or
downward dog (body forming an inverted V with fingers spread wide and back straight)
until the next position.
If you arent a licensed yoga teacher, but still want to bring this practice into your
classroom, there are a lot of YouTube channels devoted to beginners yoga that can be
wonderful resources. These are a few of my favorites:
Yoga with Adriane: http://yogawithadriene.com/
Yoga Poses to Practice Before Meditation: http://bit.ly/2fUg1IE
Yoga TX: http://bit.ly/2gq1Urv
Kino Yoga: https://www.youtube.com/user/KinoYoga

Self-Exploration Art Projects
Art can be a journey as well as a celebration of self-exploration. By purposefully
embodying mindfulness into the way you approach an art project, you can transform it into
a mindfulness exercise.

As an example, in my class students combined color theory and self-exploration in a

project we called our I Am pieces. Students listed descriptors of themselves and then
matched the
descriptions with
colors. Each wedge
of color in the final
art pieces represents
a part of their
personality and
written within the
wedges are
describing words or
phrases that connect
to that color. The
goal of this project was to honor and celebrate the different parts of ourselves and
reconcile elements of ourselves that may appear in conflict with one another, but in fact
work to create balance in our lives and personalities. The class then designed a bulletin
board that connected the pieces with string to illustrate class community.

Zentangle
The Zentangle Method is a relaxing, and
fun way to create beautiful images by drawing
structured patterns. Zentangle drawings are
completely abstract and focus on deliberate
strokes, shapes, and repetitive patterns in a
small square space. One of the rules of
Zentangle is that you may not use an eraser, but
must instead focus on each line as being an
important contribution.
There are three rules to Zentangle
drawings that help make them a mindful activity:
1. Zentangles are unplanned - dont have a goal in mind. This is intended to free
your mind. Allow the pattern to reveal itself.

2. Zentangles are deliberate. You must commit to each stroke NO ERASERS!

3. Give your Zentangle 100% focus. This is not an absent-minded doodle; it
requires undivided attention.
Steps to creating a Zentangle drawing:
1. With a pencil, draw a rough border around your square
2. Draw a string (or twisting line) within your border. Draw this lightly as you
do not want this line to be visible when your Zentangle is done
3. Start creating a tangle with a PEN. A tangle is a pattern along the string. It
should be composed of simple shapes and patters: dots, circles, lines,
squiggles Providing examples can be very helpful.
To add onto this simple activity, try providing outlines of animals and having
students fill the shapes in with Zentangle patterns and shapes or have students create a
larger image using these patterns all on their own!

Coloring
As obvious as it seems, coloring is a great way to stop, refocus, and relax. In my class
there is no tech during coloring time other than music. We pull all of the tables together
and just sit and talk. It can be a great time for big group conversations or small discussions
and has been huge in creating a sense of community in my class.

Podcasts
Podcasts can be another great resource for yourself or your students. Although I
have never used longer podcasts with my class, I personally use podcasts as a way to
incorporate mindfulness in my own life on a daily basis. There are a lot of excellent
mindfulness podcasts that either focus on longer mindfulness meditations or discuss
mindfulness and different strategies. Here are a few examples:
Headspace: As I mentioned in the Short Mindfulness Exercises section, Headspace
has some excellent guided mindfulness activities on their YouTube channel and in

10

their app. https://www.headspace.com or

https://www.youtube.com/user/Getsomeheadspace
Mindfuling: This podcast by Paul Cheevers is also a great source of full mindfulness
exercises that is updated frequently. The podcasts can be quite long, usually about
30 minutes, but explore unique and relevant topics. http://www.mindfuling.org/
Daily Meditation Podcast: Mary shares a different meditation technique each day
and guides you through this technique in a 10-15 minute podcast. These podcasts
are actually posted daily and there are currently over 900 podcasts in this series.
http://apple.co/2fUzkRW

11

RESEARCH FINDINGS
The benefits of mindfulness are well-documented, including reduced stress, boosts
to working memory, increased focus, less emotional reactivity, more cognitive flexibility,
and heightened relationship satisfaction, among others (Davis and Hayes). Rather than
prove the benefits of mindfulness myself, my goal with my research was to see the benefits
of my approach to mindfulness. While I dont know that the benefits of mindfulness can be
easily quantified, I had my students complete a survey before and after learning about
mindfulness in my class. The most significant findings of this survey have been charted in
the figure below.
Post-Mindfulness Survey Results
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Did you enjoy
learning about
mindfulness?

Did you find

Do you think all
Do you think that Do you think that Do you think that
mindfuless has
mindfuness has
learning about students hould learn mindfuless has
mindfulness to be about mindfulness?
helpd decrease helped you increase helped increase
feelings of anxiety feelings of overall
your focus and
helpful?
and stress?
wellbeing and
academic
happiness?
achievement?

According to the results of this survey, 85% of students surveyed enjoyed learning
about mindfulness, 93% found that learning about mindfulness was helpful, and 77%
thought that all students should learn mindfulness. Additionally, 55% of students felt that
mindfulness helped decrease their feelings of anxiety and stress, while 53% found that it
helped increase feelings of overall wellbeing and happiness, and 50% thought that it helped
them increase their focus and academic achievement.
Students also provided written feedback on their individual experiences with
mindfulness. I believe that these findings are more interesting because they illustrate the
individual nature of mindfulness and how it impacted each student. Below is a selection of
the responses:
I am happier and its easier to deal with stress.
What I really like about mindfulness is how calming and relaxing it is.

12

I think Ive become more aware of my thoughts and thinking. Im able to now take notice of
my negative thoughts and stressors and evaluate whether they are worth being stressed
about.
I think Ive really been able to turn my negativity into positivity and remind myself that its
not the end of the world.
I changed emotionally. I feel like Ive brought many of these strategies into my personal life. I
feel like it will still be a long time until Im completely mindful of my surroundings.
I like how you can do it [mindfulness] on your own and in a way secretly because no-one has
to know that you need to step outside. Instead you can sit there and breathe.
I feel like I have been able to focus more in class after having Yay You and that sometimes I
am a little calmer.
I feel like it [focusing on mindfulness] has impacted me because this class has helped me
control my stress and also helped me control my emotions a little more. It also helped me get
my life straight.



Works Cited
Davis, Daphne M., and Jeffrey A. Hayes. "What are the Benefits of Mindfulness? A Practice
Review of Psychotherapy-Related Research." Psychotherapy, vol. 48, no. 2, 2011., pp.
198-208. doi:10.1037/a0022062.
Harp, David. Mindfulness to Go: How to Meditate While Youre On the Move. New Harbinger
Publications, July 2011, Oakland CA.
The MindUp Curriculum: Brain-focused Strategies for Learning-and Living: Grades 6-8. New
York: Scholastic, 2011. Print.
Verplanken, Bas, and Naomi Fisher. "Habitual Worrying and Benefits of Mindfulness."
Mindfulness, vol. 5, no. 5, 2014., pp. 566-573. doi:10.1007/s12671-013-0211-0.

13

APPENDIX: VISUALIZATION SCRIPT

Below is a full visualization script that can be read for a quick, prep-free mindfulness
exercise. When introducing visualizations, encourage students to free themselves from the
influence of their peers, this can mean orienting themselves toward a wall or closing their
eyes. When reading the visualization script, remember to take long pauses and speak
slowly and softly. This visualization was made for my class, as they found the ocean to be
particularly relaxing.

Sandy Beach Visualization
Start by getting comfortable. Settle into your chair and set your feet flat on the floor.
Begin to allow your muscles to relax. First your arms, then your legs. Feel your body soften
and settle into your seat. Close your eyes when youre ready.
Breathe deeply in through your nose and out through your mouth. Feel the air fill
your chest and pull all the way down through your core. As you breathe out, let the air rush
out of your mouth. Concentrate for a moment on your breaths. (long pause here)
Feel your body as it begins to relax and let go of the tension of the day. Envision a
wave of peace washing over your body from your toes up your legs and arms and washing
over your head.
And as you pay attention to that wave of peace, you begin to hear more waves.
Imagine a quiet beach materializing around you. You stand on the edge of the warm, white
sand. Feel the warmth of the sun on your skin, the sand between your toes. Listen to the
crashing waves. Feel the sun on your skin and the slight ocean breeze wafting towards you.
Breathe in the warm, humid air. Feel it fill your lungs.
You walk toward the ocean slowly, feeling the soft dry sand slowly change beneath
your feet as you approach the water. Pause for a moment at the edge of the water and
watch the waves as they come toward you and then recede. They crash into the sand before
you and barely touch your toes before turning back to the sea. Enjoy the rhythm of the
waves. The steady chorus of the ocean, like a heartbeat, like your breath.

14

You take a few more steps into the water and the waves begin to swirl around your
ankles. The water is warm and refreshing, a relief from the hot sun. You watch the grains of
sand as they dance across your toes with the current of the ocean.
For a moment, you stand completely still. Listening. Smelling. Enjoying this moment
of peace. Taking in every beautiful detail of this place.
Now, when youre ready, turn from the ocean and begin to head home. You walk
along the waters edge for a few paces, enjoying this lingering moment of tranquility, before
walking back across the warm sand.
Slowly begin to return to your body in this moment. Feel the chair below you, the
floor connecting you to the ground. Stretch your fingers and toes. Listen to the sounds
around you and, when youre ready, open your eyes. As you go about your day, remember
this moment of peace and calm. Pause for a moment and remember the warmth of the sun
on your skin, the breeze on your face, and the sense of peace that comes from being at the
sea.

15