Ten minutes are all you need for a breathing exercise designed to bring calm and focus. Young scholars get their wiggles out, then shift their gaze and belly breath, paying close attention to how they physically feel.

Mindful breathing or belly breathing is the basis for most mindfulness exercises. Introduce mindfulness practices with a short exercise in breath awareness designed to reduce stress and increase awareness.

The first of eight lessons introduces learners to Breath Awareness—an exercise that brings focus and thoughtfulness through breathing before engaging in other activities.

The more you practice, the better you get. That's the big idea behind a lesson plan for middle schoolers about using mindfulness breathing techniques to reduce stress. Class members practice Star Breathing and Rainbow Breathing exercises...

Following a breathing exercise, scholars examine facial expressions and body posture to identify feelings. The exercise ends with a reflection.

Let it go! As part of the Mindfulness series, pupils learn a technique to manage stress and strong emotions. While doing the deep breathing exercise, they imagine a train of stressful thoughts, take a step back, and let the train pass.

Respond rather than react! A self-management exercise teaches pupils a Mindful S.T.O.P. activity. Participants Stop their thoughts or actions, Take deep breaths, Observe how they are feeling, then Proceed with a response that will help...

More asthma attacks happen at higher altitudes, but why? Scholars complete worksheets, learning about homeostasis and feedback related to breathing. Then, they work in small groups to experiment with breathing in limited amounts of...

What happens in the muscles during anaerobic and aerobic exercise, and how does this affect the heart and our overall health? A cross-curricular lesson plan that introduces learners to the lifelong benefits of exercise, including...

Blow some bubbles and learn how living things need air in the eighth lesson of this series. Young scientists investigate this important gas by observing bubbles and monitoring their own breathing. A simple and fun activity that raises...

Encourage scholars to build self-confidence by thinking positively. Learners focus on breathing and then think of positive statements about themselves, their relationships, appearance, physical health, and so much more. 

A coping skill helps to manage emotions. Young scholars pretend they are a remote control. When they feel strongly about something, they pause their actions, take a deep breath, reflect, and press play to get back to what they were doing.

What is the relationship among the heart, circulation, and exercise? Your class members will explore first-hand how different physical exercises affect an individual's heart rate. They will begin by learning how to measure their own...

Create emotional superheroes with a unit equipped with several activities and lessons designed to establish coping skills and practice tools that boost healthy habits. Through discussion, chants, writing, and drawing, scholars learn to...

Middle schoolers apply what they learned in the previous lesson about mindful yoga to design a project to help a teen cope with a stressful situation in a healthy way. Groups role play explaining the benefits of their approach and...

Instill kindness with a unit all about empathy. Lessons and activities follow a prepare, engage, reflect, and action sequence. Learning experiences include making the classroom a safe environment, peer-invented handshakes, discussions...

Standing pose, tree pose, warrior pose, easy pose. Middle schoolers learn several basic yoga exercises and poses that can help them relax. They also keep a four-week stress log to track stressful situations and how they dealt with them.

As testing season is upon us, give class members a way to prepare their minds and bodies for the big day. A resource promotes deep breathing exercises and comfortability to reduce anxiety. Along with multiple choice, short...

Help scholars manage stress with an activity that prompts them to think of their feelings as clouds floating over their heads. Learners identify their feelings, focus on their responses, and allow them to float away.

A lesson uses a stop light to assist young scholars in using self-control. After the class defines self-control and how it boosts responsibility and independence, they practice a breathing exercise to reflect on their behavior....

Have a go at this exercise in thinking by asking thinkers to think about thinking, of what they think of, and what they think about. The worksheets in the packet provide much food for thought.

Young scholars explore asthma.  In this respiratory system and asthma lesson, students identify the body parts related to the respiratory system and explain each part's function. Young scholars construct a 3-D replica of the...

Elementary schoolers play a respiratory relay toss in order to take in the respiratory system! They also create their own question cards based on several kid-friendly online articles about breathing and the health of the lungs. They use...

A guided imagery exercise draws class members into a particularly intense scene in Edward Bloor's Tangerine. After listening to a reading of an excerpt from the text, participants respond to a series of questions and then share their...