With the constant transitions and the chaos of a school day, students sometimes come into the art room WOUND UP. In an attempt to combat that, both of us have dedicated a few minutes of the beginning of each art class to help get our students focused and in the right mindset to work hard (and calm down).
Although both of us do this, we each have different approaches and have seen success. This isn’t always a fool-proof way to get students to calm down, but if you’re diligent about it and remind them of it’s purpose, they tend to take it more seriously.
Hayley’s Version
I have a PowerPoint set up that I use throughout the year with my ideas compiled together. I like to bounce back and forth between different mindful videos and different breathing techniques. Some videos my students really seem to enjoy are anything ASMR; kinetic sand, paint moving in water, etc. You can find endless amounts of videos, just make sure to preview them before showing your students. I typically only show them a minute or two even if the videos are several minutes long. I found a variety of breathing techniques and have definitely landed on some favorites.
Mountain breathing—students draw “mountains” (or a zig zag in this case) with their finger in the air or on their table and take a deep breath “up” the mountain and let that deep breath out “down” the mountain. We take anywhere from 5-10 deep breaths.
Finger tracing—students go around each finger with the other pointer finger and similar to the mountain breathing, take a deep breath in when they travel up their finger and let a deep breath out when they travel down their finger. Something I am always very aware of if any of my students don’t have 5 fingers on one hand to not give too specific of directions such as how many breaths of what hand they should use. I haven’t personally ran into this situation, but at some point in time it came out mind.
Breathing colors—students close their eyes and visualize a color that makes them happy and they envision that color when they take that deep breath in and pretend it’s filling their body. When they let a deep breath out, they picture a color that reminds them of being sad, mad, frustrated and breath that color out. A little more conceptional, but it’s always fun to hear them talk about what colors they chose and why.
And of course, there are plenty of videos that combine these two different tactics. Calm makes quite a few mindful videos or breathing videos and they are typically short. Sometimes my decision depends on too if I need a minute to get something done when they first walk in the door. I do the same thing with every class through the whole rotation and change it the next week. I do not do something different every single week of the school year though. It’s fun to see what ones they remember and enjoy when they are repeated.
Laura’s Version
Laura has some different breathing exercises printed and laminated where students trace their finger over that shape. Before they begin, she turns off the lights to set them up in a calmer space. Her breathing exercises include a figure 8, one with a square, wavy lines, spiral, straight lines, and curly lines that are optional for them to use while taking their deep breaths. You can find endless ideas for this with a quick Google search. Laura also has a chime (find it here)* she uses to help bring a calm over her room (think like a sound bath on a smaller scale). After they have completed one of these exercises, they all recite her art room mantra that she created.
“I am calm.
I can create.
I make messes.
I make mistakes.
That’s okay because I know…
When it gets hardest,
I’m still an artist.”
One thing we’ve both noticed is if we ever forget or skip these activities, our students are very quick to notice and want to know why. So even though sometimes it feels like one more thing to do, or maybe they don’t really appreciate it, many of them actually do.
I always explain to them about how busy and structured their day is and this is their chance to just sit for a minute or two without having to think much and just relax and reset and that I also like this time and it’s for me as well. Of course, we don’t force students to participate but we do expect them to be respectful of their classmates who enjoy this time and want to take it seriously.
Finally, we both take the time to explain that these are things they can do on their own when they are stressed or upset and can help bring them to a calmer state of mind.
Have you ever incorporated anything similar in your classroom? Let us know in the comments!
Keep blending,
Hayley
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