The lesson plans are set up sequentially as the basic structure for each of the three sections of the unit. Slight changes and expansion for each section are up to the teacher's discretion, even though large deviations are not advised in order to keep the consistency of format.
Lesson Plan One
Introduction
The students should be briefed about the "Quiet Time" procedure beforehand. Parental permission should be obtained. The teacher/leader can discuss with children that they are being taught a technique that will help reduce stress and help them feel peaceful and good. They should understand what stress is in terms of some of the effects to the body, and the relationship to brain chemistry. A unit on the brain and how it works and perhaps a unit on the heart are good precursors but a simple explanation is also fine. There should also be an explanation that reducing stress and feeling good could help them do their best in school.
Objective
Seventy five percent of the students will perform yoga exercises, sing songs, attempt relaxation, and complete extension exercise within a five to ten session training period in two weeks as measured by teacher-made observation sheets.
Materials
Tape player that can be heard by all students
Quiet music tape- Hap Palmer's Quiet Places or similar tape
Yoga for Children
- Book by Mary Stewart and Kathy Phillips
Spinning Inward
-Book by Maureen Murdock
A small rug piece sample or mat for each child
Procedure
1. Students enter space. They should be wearing comfortable clothing. Girls that are wearing skirts or dresses could bring a loose pair of slacks or sweat pants and keep them at school to put on under their skirts or dresses. Each student takes a mat and finds a space on the floor in rows and columns. The leader/teacher should be in the front of the class or space.
2. There should be quiet music playing. When enough students have entered the teacher/leader will start with the following Yoga and stretching exercises taken from
Yoga for Children
(Stewart and Phillips, 1992). The teacher should feel comfortable with the exercises ahead of time or get someone with experience in yoga to help. Stewart and Phillips' simple explanation is given here, see book for a full illustration.
A. Mountain Pose- Stand with your feet slightly apart and parallel. Keep your legs straight, weight on your heals, and toes spread out. You are anchored to the floor by your legs and heels, which allows your spine to straighten and you stretch up.
B. Rag Doll Pose- Stand straight with your shoulders down, head straight and the back or your neck long. With your heels down and the back of our knees straight, breathe out and bend from the hips so that your arms flop down. Keep your weight even on both feet. Breathe out as your come up.
C. Standing Twist Pose- Stand straight. Place your right foot one step forward, keeping your weight on your back foot. With your toes still pointing forwards, breath out and turn to the right extending your arms sideways. Try not to lift your heel off the floor as you turn. Turn more and look at your right hand. Keeping your left heel down and your shoulders relaxed, stretch your spine as far as you can. Breathe out as you come up. Repeat on the other side.
D. Half Butterfly Pose- Sit up very straight with your legs in front of you. Stretch your heels and the backs of your knees. Bend the right leg. Bring your foot to the inside of your left thigh. Let the right leg drop. Breathe out and keeping both buttocks on the floor, stretch forward and upward from the right hip and catch your left foot with our right hand. If your cannot, then stretch as much as possible without pain. Breathe out and stretches further, letting your spine grow longer, but do not pull yourself forward by hanging on to your foot. Repeat with the other knee bent
3. After completing the yoga/stretching exercises, students are to sit cross-legged on the mats. The teacher should demonstrate how. A few varieties should be given such as the lotus position. One or two songs should be sung. The theme of the song should be peace. R. Tamminga has an example in his book, but there are examples in the children's song resources section of the bibliography. The songs can be taught by the call and response method using one line at a time. One new song a week is good in the beginning. The music teacher in the school may be willing to help teach the songs.
4. Students are then guided through initial relaxation exercise. The script used is from the first relaxation exercise in
Spinning Inward
(Murdock, 1987). The teacher/leader needs to try the script out ahead of time. Maybe teams of teachers can try it on each other. A teacher could try it out on a family member or have a family member try it on them.
Script for teacher - The following is a short introduction. See book for full text.
"Close your eyes and sit very quietly. Take a couple of moments and notice how your body feels. Are you holding your breath, or do you breathe evenly? Notice if you feel any tension or stress in any part of your body. Now you are going to relax your body as your relax your breath.
Breathe in… and … out… and…. in… and … out, and allow yourself to let go of any thoughts or worries. Gently continue to breathe in… and…. out… and focus your attention on your feet. Just notice you have put all of your attention on your feet. Now, as your take a deep breath, tense or squeeze the muscles in your feet… hold it… and now release the tension in the muscles of your feet as you breathe out. And now continue breathing gently and calmly."
The teacher/leader continues through all the areas of the body the same way all the way up through the body, even to the head and mind. The children are slowly brought back to opening up their eyes.
In Class Extension
Students are dismissed quietly to their classrooms or in classrooms ask children to quietly go to their seats. The teacher/leader can set up each desk or table ahead of time. The children should have watercolors and paper and be asked to paint their experience. The pictures can be just colors or designs or the students can paint pictures. They can write about their paintings if they want.
Lesson Plan Two
Introduction
Students should have practiced variations of the first technique for at minimum of five times within a two-week period. The students can have "Quiet Time" up to five times a week. At the beginning of school is the best time. Lesson two is an introduction to the second step of the process. This is the bridge between relaxation exercises and meditation. The students should be informed ahead of time that they will follow the same format for "Quiet Time" and just add something. The students in this class are studying water and marine life, so yoga positions, guided imagery, and extensions have been selected with this theme in mind. Two examples of a guided imagery and extension selection are offered. There are other yoga positions, guided imageries, and extensions that are available for other themes
Objective
Seventy five percent of the students will be able to perform the "Quiet Time" exercises and complete extension exercises with some positive results as measured by teacher made feedback forms.
Materials
Yoga for Children
(Stewart and Phillip, 1992) and Imagine That (Cohen, 1983)
Starbright
(Garth, 1991), Moonbeam (Garth, 1992)
The River that Gave Gifts
(Humphrey, 1987)
The Island of the Blue Dolphins
(O'Dell, 1990)
Mats for children, Tape recorder, Guitar or small electric piano
Quiet Places tape - Hap Palmer (1992) or other quiet music
Procedure
1. The students should enter silently, get an individual mat and sit on the floor cross-legged with their hands on their lap. There should be some quiet music playing and no talking. The teacher/leader should be at the front of the room. The students will start with the following exercises from
Yoga for Children
(Stewart and Phillip, 1992) and
Imagine That
(Cohen, 1983).
Mountain Pose, Rag Doll Pose, Standing Twist Pose, Half Butterfly Pose, the Sea Shell Pose, and the Fish Pose
2. The students can sit up cross-legged on their mats. The teacher will then teach and sing a song with the students. If the teacher is not comfortable with this, then playing a tape and having the teacher and students sing along is also good. You can combine classes if one teacher is comfortable singing or have the music teacher help or make a tape for you. The music teacher can even rehearse the songs with the students ahead of time. Any quiet song with the themes of peace, love, or caring for you or others is fine. You can make up new words to a song they already know. The bibliography has resources. You want to create a positive relaxed environment.
3. The students then will be asked to go through the following short relaxation breathing exercise and then guided imagery. The teacher/leader should start with a shorter version of the original relaxation. Ask students to close their eyes, watch and quiet their breath, and relax their bodies. If they see any areas of the body that are tense, then use the technique of breathing in and tense those muscles, and then breathing out and relaxing those muscles. They should then tell the students to bring their awareness to their minds and relax and quiet their mind.
The teacher/leader should now tell the children she/he would take them on a journey of their imagination to a place that is special. The teacher/leader now will read one of the guided imageries to the children. These should be short and open-ended. After the teacher/leader is done, they should let the children have a minute or two where they can be quiet in their own thoughts. They should then bring them quietly back to normal waking consciousness, telling students it is time to come back to start their day. Tell them to come slowly back and gradually open their eyes. Students should be dismissed quietly in small groups either to their desks or to their rooms.
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Example one
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"The Pool of Reflection"-Starbright (Garth, 1991)
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Example two
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"Dolphins and Whales"-Moonbeam (Garth, 1995)
Extension
Example one extension: the students can immediately go to their seats or tables and write about what they imagined. They can also draw or paint.
The book
The River That Gave Gifts
(Humphrey, 1987) is a wonderful connection to this exercise. The book could be read to the students as a writer's workshop story starter. The students could be asked to think about a time when they received a special gift. What was it? What made the gift so special to them? Was it the gift itself that was so wonderful of was it the person who gave the gift that made it so special to them? Be sure to remind the students that the story of Yanave tells them that the most precious things we receive are not always wrapped up in a beautiful box with ribbons. The students should have time to write, edit, and share this story.
Example two extension: The students can immediately go to their seats or tables and write about what they imagined. They can also draw or paint.
The book,
The Island of the Blue Dolphins
(O'Dell, 1990) is a wonderful book for fifth graders. The students can connect their imagery about the dolphins and the themes in this book. They can also relate it to their own experiences in their lives and their own cultures. Doing a chapter from this book right after "Quiet Time" is a great way to utilize the benefits for literacy goals.
Lesson Plan Three
Introduction
The students should try the guided imagery version for around two weeks for three to five times a week. It is important not to dwell too long on this "bridge" or it will be harder to transition to the next technique, which is more individual. The teacher/leader needs to explain that we have imagined many wonderful, peaceful and loving places in our exercises and now the students are ready to add a new technique. They should inform the students that we will still use guided imagery at other times during the day, but that we will replace it with a technique to help quiet our minds. They should feel peaceful and good, but these techniques will also help them to concentrate.
Objective
Seventy-five percent of the students will be able to perform the techniques of "Quiet Time" and complete extensions with some positive results as measured by teacher made observation sheets and feedback forms.
Materials
Yoga for Children
(Stewart and Phillip, 1992),
Imagine That
(Cohen, 1983), and
Children's book of Yoga
, (Luby, 1998)
Mats for children, tape recorder, guitar or small electric piano
Music tapes from Bibliography or others
Procedure
1. Students enter room or classroom quietly and get a mat to sit on. They wait without talking until teacher/leader begins. Quiet music should be playing. The teacher/leader should be in front of the room. The students will start with the teacher leading them in selected stretching and yoga. At this point, it is important to keep a few yoga positions that are the same and routine with perhaps a total of around five or six. The first four should be the same, with the fifth being familiar and perhaps a new sixth one that is taught every week or so.
2. The students can sit up cross-legged on their mats. The teacher will explain that today we are learning our final technique that we will be using from now on. The explanation of the technique and the way imagery is going to be used from now on is important to discuss beforehand during class time. Explain that today they are going to use their own minds and imagination to relax and feel good and help them concentrate. They are ready to learn this technique because they have been doing a really good job with "Quiet Time". The students need to know that using the phrase or mantra is a way to calm their minds, but that other thoughts will enter their minds. They need to know that they are to let those thoughts gently pass through their minds, like thoughts passing down on a stream and then gently start the phrase again. This distraction of thoughts is normal and forcing them away will only make the mind more agitated. The teacher will sing with them and then they will sing a phrase over and over that will help them go to the peaceful and loving places that they have been during their previous "Quiet Times". You can teach the song line by line in a call and response way. In this initial lesson in this technique, it is better to have someone that can play the guitar or piano and can lead in teaching the song. The song will end with the same melody and singing the words "Love is all there is" over and over. You can change the song week to week or whenever feels comfortable and end the song with "Love is all there is". At a latter time, the words "Love is all there is" can be taught in Spanish or French or tried in other languages. The song below from the Progressive School of Long Island is one example or a song sung directly before meditation. The song should end with whatever phrase is going to be used to meditate. One way to enhance this technique is to combine the sound and the word meaning. A language can be used in which the sound of the words have been developed carefully. Sanskrit is one such language. "Love is all there is" in Sanskrit is Baba Nam Kevelam. These words can be used the same way as "Love is all there is" with the children saying the words and thinking of the meaning at the same time. Doing these two things simultaneously can enrich the meditation with practice.
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Song
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The Earth below And the power of Love is all there is
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And the Sky above the force of love Love is all there is
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I start to glide I start to feel it Love is all there is
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On the road inside All around and in my mind
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Meditation Technique
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Continue with the melody and sing "Love is all there is" over and over
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Step 1- Sing softly
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Step 2 -Sing whispering
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Step 3- Mouth the words with no sound
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Step 4- Hear the words in their minds coordinated with breath
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Step 5- Stop the music completely and have them just hear it in their minds
Let students sit and meditate for around three minutes and then extend it to five minutes as students get use to the technique. End the meditation with singing the words "Love is all there is" and then tell the students to slowly open their eyes when they are ready. The students need to remain quiet and be dismissed to their class or seats in small groups.
Extensions
1. The teacher/leader can create a nice transition by doing a short "imagery" exercise later in the day. There are several in
Spinning Inward
(Murdock, 1987) I would suggest "Sanctuary" or "The Ally Within".
2.Literacy extension:
Morning Girl
(Doris, 1992) is an excellent book for this topic. The character element is about the love of the world. This book would blend nicely after "Quiet Time".