What can we do to promote our physical and emotional well-being?.Do we express ourselves differently depending on how we are feeling?.Using media, games and stories, we inquired into essential questions, such as: Students could also choose to take part in weekly afternoon mindfulness sessions, where-within small or large groups-we would develop and sustain students’ social and emotional skills.We would take time to consciously connect with our breathing before moving on to the next stage of our learning experiences.

We built in “mindful moments” throughout the day to check in on how we were feeling, particularly during transition times.

“I want everyone to be caring by taking turns when a friend asks for a toy.”.

“Today I will be a good communicator by listening during story time.”.

Students would choose intentions such as: We welcomed every new school day by setting up individual and whole group intentions using the IB learner profile attributes as a guide.

Before diving into the hustle and bustle of learning, students and teachers gathered to practice fun, engaging and original breathing techniques. We integrated a “mindful minute” into our morning routines.We revisited our classroom agreements and used the IB learner profile attributes of “caring”, “communicators” and “balanced” to develop new essential agreements that aligned with the codes of behaviour we were striving for as a community of learners.Subsequently, we created a “mindful corner” that contained visual cues about emotions, literature on feelings, sensory cushions and props to help ease anxiety spells, and a listening station where nature sounds and children’s meditations could be played to help transport students to a world of calm whenever emotional meltdowns occurred. With input from students, we altered the layout of our classroom spaces to provide a natural flow between busy and quiet spaces. Initially, I introduced students to the concept of mindfulness by using supportive literature and together we co-constructed the following strategies in our quest to become more self-regulated, self-directed and mindful of our own and others’ needs, wants and wishes.Īdopting the Environment as the Third Teacher (Brunton and Thornton, 2014) has always been part of the teaching philosophy at our school’s Early Learning Center, as we are inspired by a Reggio Emilia approach to learning in the early years. It was through mindfulness practices that students learned to assimilate the IB learner profile attributes and independently began to take action over their behavioural choices within social groups. Though at the time I had doubts over my capacities to attend to the needs of these students-whilst simultaneously ensuring equal opportunities for all students to develop and thrive within our programme of inquiry-the culture of my school, which is deeply rooted in the IB principles, allowed me to take leadership and experiment, applying methods that resulted in a transformational school year for all stakeholders. The academic year of 2016/17 was no different, only this time the opportunity to grow as an educator came in the form of a complex challenge many long-serving teachers have encountered along their careers-a classroom community with a significant number of students with in-depth social and emotional needs. This article depicts the mindfulness journey a preschool class took to develop and learn effectively as part of an inclusive and balanced Primary Years Programme (PYP) learning community.Īs an experienced early years teacher, every new academic year fills me with a mixture of nostalgia for the years that have passed and nervous excitement for the experiences that lay ahead. Catarina Peterson, early years teacher, Luanda International School, Angola

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