Learning Resources: Mindfulness

Early readers are introduced to a foundation of daily mindfulness practices in the My Mindful Day series. Being Present explores the importance of connecting with others and focusing on the present instead of the future. This engaging early approach to mindfulness helps readers develop word recognition and reading skills. Each book in this series includes a table of contents, glossary, index, and an author biography.

Ms. Snowden and her class practice sending kind thoughts to thepeople they love, and they launch a class Kindness Project. There is only oneproblem: Henry can't think of one kind thing he has done. Declaring thatkindness is stupid, he stomps to the classroom door on the verge of tears, buthis classmates save the day by reminding him of the kind things he has done foreach of them.  

Is it possible we've misunderstood crying all along? That's the discovery one big sister sets out to share with her little brother as they walk to school and get caught in a storm. Along the way they explore sadness, loneliness, fear, frustration, anger and more, through gentle metaphor. Their journey examines our tears revealing how they begin, why they happen, and what to do with them. Throughout the book, the message received is that we are safe in our emotional experiences and that feelings, like the weather, come and go. This is an empowering story about navigating and understanding our feelings as a healthy, important, and very natural part of our lives. Have you ever noticed you feel differently after you cry? That's because Crying is like the Rain.

Henry is a lot of fun when he's not storming through the house, so Emma decides to teach him how to be still. By showing him how to sit, bow, and breathe, Emma is able to calm the hurricane within Henry.A perfect introduction to meditation for young readers, presented in a captivating story.The illustrations bring the story to life with delightful whimsy.Includes a back-of-book presentation of simple mindfulness techniques that can be shared at home and in the classroom.In Planting Seeds, Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, teaches that by sitting still and meditating, the mind can become clear. Like Hanh's apple juice story, when a glass of lemonade is stirred, the pulp swirls around. When it sits quietly, the pulp settles and the liquid becomes clear. In this way, a glass of lemonade is a metaphor for how meditation and mindfulness work. That is why this book is called The Lemonade Hurricane. Practicing mindfulness and meditation helps us tame the hurricane within.Fountas & Pinnell Level L

When a downcast Sergio gets home from a bad day at school, his wise mother listens sympathetically to his tale of woe and then suggests an experiment. Placing a bowl of marbles next to Grandfather's old balance scale, she asks him to go back to the beginning of his day and remember each good and bad thing that happened. For each bad thing, he places a marble on the right-hand pan of the sca≤ for each good thing he places a marble on the left-hand pan. Sergio is amazed to discover that even on a day that felt awful, the good outweighed the bad. 

Mrs. Snowden tells the kids that T = True, H = Helpful, N =Necessary, and K = Kind. If what you're about to say isn't any of these things,she tells them, you shouldn't say it. Later that day, when Tyaja is about tocriticize her friend Dhavi's new haircut, she is stopped by four little elvessporting the letters T, H, N, and K, who reinforce Ms. Snowden's lesson andremind Tyaja how friends should treat friends. Tyaja learns that she is the "I"in THiNK!

This simple yet powerful picture book--from a New York Times bestselling husband-and-wife team--tells the story of one girl who inspires a community to stand up to bullying. The perfect back-to-school read for every kid, family and classroom!   Inspired by real events, I Walk with Vanessa explores the feelings of helplessness and anger that arise in the wake of seeing a classmate treated badly, and shows how a single act of kindness can lead to an entire community joining in to help.