In today's fast-paced world, children are more distracted than ever before. With increasing reports of anxiety and ADHD, educators are facing the challenge of how to keep young minds focused and calm in the classroom.
Imagine a classroom where children are restless, unable to focus, and the concept of patience seems as distant as the moon. Attention spans are dwindling, and traditional teaching methods are losing their effectiveness. How can we guide our students to be more present, attentive, and emotionally aware?
The answer lies in the power of mindfulness. By teaching mindfulness to children, we can transform our classrooms into havens of tranquility and focus. Mindfulness practices not only help children with ADHD but also equip all students with the tools to manage their emotions and enhance their learning experience.
Discuss the benefits of mindfulness for children, including improved attention, better emotional regulation, and enhanced academic performance. Highlight how mindfulness activities can be particularly beneficial for children with ADHD. Use anecdotes or hypothetical scenarios to illustrate points vividly.
1. Emotion Exploration Journey
Use "Why Do I Feel Emotions Big Book" to guide children through understanding and naming their emotions. This activity can help students articulate their feelings more clearly and understand that all emotions are valid.
2. The Mindfulness Alphabet Game
Leverage "The Mindfulness Alphabet Big Book" to teach mindfulness from A to Z. Each letter represents a mindfulness concept, which can be explored through stories, discussions, and activities.
3. Positive Mindset Morning Rituals
Start each day with affirmations from the "Positive Mindset Affirmations Big Book." This sets a positive tone for the day, boosts self-esteem, and fosters a supportive classroom environment.
4. 'Get to Know Me' Circle Time
Use "Get to Know Me Big Book" to encourage students to share about themselves in a mindful way, enhancing empathy and connection among classmates.
5. Mindful Movements with the Australian Flag Puzzle
Incorporate the "Australian Flag Puzzle" into a lesson on mindfulness by focusing on the process of solving the puzzle mindfully, observing emotions and thoughts that arise during the activity.
Embrace the transformative power of mindfulness in your classroom with these creative lesson ideas. By integrating mindfulness practices into your teaching, you're not just educating; you're providing life skills that will support your students' emotional and mental well-being. Dive deeper into mindfulness with our collection of mindfulness children's books, designed to make teaching mindfulness engaging and effective. Start your journey today and watch as your classroom transforms into a space of calm, focused learning.
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With social isolation in full swing, if you’re a parent or caregiver, you may be finding yourself scratching your head lately at how to occupy your children throughout the long hours of the day. But before you reach for the tv controller or tablet, here are some reasons why you might consider a more old-fashioned approach to entertainment.
^ A child learning to assemble an Oz Publishing wooden jigsaw puzzle.
Jigsaw puzzles have been around since the 1760s, originally maps printed on sheets of hardwood, jigsaws now come in an infinite array of shapes, designs and levels of difficulty1. Traditionally viewed as a game, a growing body of research suggests that playing with puzzles might have positive impacts on a child’s cognitive, physical and emotional development. In fact, skills learnt when playing with jigsaw puzzles may assist with the development of critical skills that influence success in adult-life. Here are a few:
Fine motor skills
As children pick up, manipulate, grasp and place each puzzle piece they are developing fine-motor skills. Fine-motor skills are related to handwriting, drawing and typing abilities in later life2. Motor ability has even been linked to IQ in school-aged children3.
Visuo-spatial skills
In order to solve the puzzle, the child must form a mental understanding of how each piece fits together to form a whole. These mental representations are a critical aspect of visuo-spatial skills (the capacity to understand the relationships between objects in space), which are significantly related to maths and writing ability at school4.
Hand-eye coordination
As the child coordinates what they see with where they must move their hands to place each piece correctly, they are developing hand-eye coordination. Hand-eye coordination is corelated with sporting ability, balance, handwriting and reading5.
Problem solving skills
Jigsaw puzzles help build the foundations of important skills needed to overcome more complex problems in later life, including planning, goal setting and deductive reasoning. Each success in working through challenges and completing the puzzle also contributes to the child’s sense of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy supports children to build the self-confidence necessary to persevere through more challenging tasks in later life6.
Emotional regulation
By dealing with frustrations as they work to fit the pieces through trial and error, children also develop emotion-regulation skills, such as patience and perseverance. Emotion-regulation in early childhood is predictive of later academic success7,8.
Focused attention
Solving a puzzle requires concentration and focused attention. Puzzles can’t be cheated, teaching the child to slow down and attend to the details. Focused attention is a critical component of adult complex problem-solving ability.
^ One of Oz Publishing's famous wooden jigsaw puzzles, the Koala puzzle.
Puzzles are a simple tool for mixing entertainment with critical developmental skills. Each of the skills developed while playing with jigsaw puzzles set our children up for success in later life by building essential cognitive, physical and emotional capabilities. As such, the humble jigsaw puzzle should not be overlooked as a key piece of a child’s developmental toolbox.
References
My trip to the Torres Strait Islands was one of the best months of my life! The people who live there are such wonderful and friendly people. One of the best views of the Islands was from the helicopter.
I was lucky enough to see some of the Emergency Services in action. The fire fighters were performing a drill at the boat ramp. They were pumping sea water from the river and teaching new fire fighters how to operate the hoses.
Olsen was a fisherman I met on the beach. He taught me how to set a trap to catch fish and since it was a full moon that night, he was confident that the fish would be extra hungry! The next day he invited me to come to his house to help him eat what we caught. What a friendly guy!
I was invited to visit a home for the elderly, where I met some very interesting people. Daisy told me that she and her family have been living in the Torres Strait for generations. I also got to go and watch Rosie at work in her art studio, creating prints. She also had a gallery of beautiful art which she showed to me.
I met a priest who invited me into his home to tell me about his family, culture and religion. He was also happy to invite me to church to photograph his sermon.
I loved my time in the Torres Strait so much, that I wanted to paint a map of the islands in water colour. Do yourself a favour, visit this beautiful place and the people who live there!
If you would like to see the big book I created during my time in the Torres Strait Islands, see it here.
It's also available here, along with hundreds of other Australian educational learning resources.
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