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COM | MINDFULNESS FOR CHILDREN LESSON PLAN MODULE 1 01

MINDFULNESS
FOR CHILDREN
LESSON PLAN
1

INTRODUCTION
The following lesson has been designed to last for 90 Minutes. It can also be taught over two 45
minutes lessons or introduced in smaller parts.

ENGAGE AND TAKE 2

Time: 10 Minutes

• Watch the Video Animation: TAKE 2 and/or read the TAKE 2 script.

Introduce TAKE 2, explaining that it is a tool for helping students get more focused and feel more
relaxed.

Once you have completed the TAKE 2 exercise you will need to discuss any of the feelings or
thoughts that occurred.

• Watch the Video Animation: “The Storm”

Explain that in todays lesson you are going to talk about Stress and the effect stress can have on
the brain and the body.

Introduce the idea of stress and ask the students how they feel when they get stressed.
• "Have you ever lost your cool?”
• "Have you ever got angry?”
• "Have you ever felt stressed, what happened?”
• “How did you deal with this experience?”

A stressful situation can be a test, an exam, and homework or just about anything in our daily lives.

Introduce the keywords Mindful, to mean a very positive and happy experience, and mindless as a
stressful, negative experience.

Explain to your class that you can help them train their brain to respond and not react to stressful
situations and make them more focused in their academic work. You can also make them calmer.
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OBJECTIVES
• To introduce the TAKE 2 breathing exercise.
• To discuss how stress affects the mind and the body.
• To understand the 3 areas of the body affected by stress.
• To name 3 areas of the Brain.
• To label the diagram Brain using simple definitions.
• To create a cartoon to represent the functions of the brain.
• To understand that reactions to a stressful situation can be avoided.
• To discuss the difference between mindless (stress reaction) and mindful (present moment
considered judgment)
• To understand how a student can influence stress by using Mindfulness Practice

PRESENT THE SCIENCE

Time: 20 – 30 Minutes

• Watch the Video Animation “The Brain and Stress”

Meet the Brain Teaching:

Discuss the 3 areas of the body affected by stress.

Discuss the main parts of the brain and discuss what each area does. You can show the diagram,
which illustrates the main parts of the brain.

The 3 core areas of the brain that you will discuss are the Amygdala, the Hippocampus and the
Prefrontal Cortex (PFC)

The Prefrontal Cortex is the part of the brain, which allows us to make good decisions or Mindful
decisions. You will explain that the Amygdala acts as a Security Guard stopping information getting
the Prefrontal Cortex. If the Amygdala stops this information getting to the higher levels of the brain
then an individual reacts without thinking and mindless behavior takes place. We call this outcome
“Fight, Flight, Freeze” Reaction.

TAKE 2 activates the “relaxation response” and will allow a student to gain some mind space and
allow information to get to the Prefrontal Cortex. If this happens an individual can reduce stress,
improve focus, performance and relationships.

PRACTICE
Time: 20 - 30 Minutes

Activity 1:

Label the important parts of the brain and create your own unique definitions. For example, what
does the Amygdala do?
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What does the Prefrontal Cortex do? What is the role of the Hippocampus? You could compare the
human brain to a computer.

You can get your students to work in pairs at this point.

Go around the class and monitor your students to check they are getting the right definitions.

See the worksheet on areas of the brain.

Activity 2:

Make a cartoon like the one you have just seen in the animation and suggest using superheros or
sports stars to represent the characters of the brain.

You can get students to work in pairs.

Make a poster to display on the classroom walls.

Present to the rest of the class.

Questions:

How does a person keep getting the information up to the Prefrontal Cortex?

Activity 3:

Make a list of any stressful moments you have had recently. What happened? For example, bullying
or somebody saying something bad to you. How did you solve these problems?

REFLECTION
Time: 10 - 15 minutes

At point of the lesson it good to talk through what happened in the lesson and play the animation
again.

You will need to ask the students " what went well?" or "what did you enjoy about the lesson?" and
also "what could we do to improve the lesson."

It’s also important to do the Quick Quiz with students and have them record their answers. You can
then spend a few minutes go through the answers.

To end the lesson, try to get your students to relate to a bad experience they have had recently and
try to get them to talk through what happened and how they might have handled it differently.
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BENEFITS

EXTENSION / HOMEWORK
1. Questionnaire to ask other people how they handle stressful situation.
2. Design a Poster, which gives people advise on how to handle stressful situations using your
cartoons.

ESL OPPORTUNITY
Work in either pairs or groups during this lesson.

Suggestions:
1. The use of bi-lingual dictionaries to look up keywords in their native language.
2. Synonyms and Antonyms for keywords.
3. Find Adjectives and Adverbs to help you describe the parts of the brain in the cartoon.
4. An informal writing exercise when creating the cartoon. You can make it easier or harder by
giving your students more or less vocabulary in the presentation stage.
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RESOURCES
• Brain Diagram Worksheet
• Video Animation
• “What Went Well” worksheet
• Student Exercise Book or File and A4 Paper to record work