Meditation for Kids – Calm Schools Initiative

Calm – Meditation and Mindfulness Made Easy

Previously named App of the Year by Apple, Calm is the most popular app for meditation and mindfulness. Their guided meditations are the perfect introduction to mindfulness. Their Nature Melodies, Soundscapes, and Focus music tracks provide great background sound in many classroom settings. It’s available on iOS, Android, or via a web browser.

The Calm Schools Initiative

The folks at Calm are generously offering their paid subscription service to teachers for free. Just fill out a quick form, and they’ll email you an access code. You’ll also receive a link to download an on-boarding document with tips for getting started, and best practices for bringing mindfulness into your classroom. Once enrolled, you’ll also have access to Calm Kids programs; specifically designed for students (Pre-K – High School).

“Through mindfulness education, kids can develop a lifelong capacity for greater self-awareness, concentration, patience, and resilience.”

– The Calm Schools Initiative

Benefits of Mindfulness in the Classroom

I copied and pasted my highlights from this annotated bibliography of mindfulness education research. Please note: this is not an exhaustive examination of the research and the source is now a few years old, but it provides a great starting point for examining the benefits of mindfulness in the classroom and meditation for kids.

Anxiety

• decreased in anxiety and depression
• reductions in anxiety symptoms and behavior problems
• reduced symptoms of anxiety, depression, and somatic distress
• reductions in depression
• reduce and prevent depression in adolescents

Blood Pressure & Sleep Quality

• beneficial impact upon cardiovascular functioning in adolescents with high normal blood pressure
• overall decreases in blood pressure and heart rate
• decreases in tiredness and aches and pains
• improvements in multiple dimensions of sleep quality
• decreased class absences

Self-Acceptance

• increased feelings of calmness, relaxation, and self-acceptance
• increased self-esteem
• Improvements in self-esteem, and relationship quality
• significant increases in optimism

Emotion Regulation

• reduced rates of rule infractions, and suspensions
• improvements in emotion regulation
• positive impact on problematic responses to stress
• significant effects in promoting self-regulation among preschool children
• greater empathy, perspective-taking, emotional control, optimism
• decrease in negative social interactions
• improve specific aspects of executive function, including emotion regulation
• reduction in aggressive behavior

Focus and Attention

• fewer attention problems
• help students learn to focus and pay attention
• improved academic performance

Mindfulness Benefits for Teachers

• significant improvements in teacher well- being, efficacy, burnout/time-related stress
• reductions in stress and burnout as well as symptoms of anxiety and depression

You can find additional information on mindfulness in the classroom in my #TeachDifferent Reading Roundup.

Share Your Thoughts on Mindfulness in the Classroom

Do your students practice mindfulness in the classroom? Share your tips, thoughts, questions, and ideas in the comments below or on Twitter.

Don't Miss a Pick - Follow Us