Then, still in silence, the teachers hold up Popsicle sticks one by one, each with a student's name-a signal for the pupils to go indi vidually over to their cubbies and bring back their special, fist-sized stuffed animals: striped tigers, a pink pig, a yellow puppy, a purple donkey. The boys and girls find a spot on the floor to lie down, put their stuffed animal buddy on their belly, and wait, hands to their sides.
They follow the directions of a man's friendly voice leading them through some deep belly breathing, as they count to themselves, "one, two, three," while they take a long exhalation and inhala tion.1 Then they squeeze and relax their eyes; stretch their mouth wide open, sticking out their tongue; and squeeze their hands into a ball, relaxing each in turn. It ends with the voice saying, "Now sit up, and feel relaxed," and as they do, they all seem to be just that.
Another chime, and still in silence the kids on cue take their places in a circle on the rug, and report on what they experienced: "It feels nice inside." "I felt very lazy because it calmed my body." "It made me have happy thoughts."
The orderliness of the exercise and the calm focus in the class room make it hard to believe eleven of the twenty-two kids are classified as having "special needs": cognitive impairments like dys lexia, speech difficulties or partial deafness, attention deficit hyper activity disorder, points on the autism spectrum.
"We've got many kids with problems, but when we do this, they don't act out," says Miss Emily. But the week before, a glitch in the school day meant Room 302 skipped this ritual. "It was like they were a different class," says Miss Emily. "They couldn't sit still; they were all over the place."
"Our school has some kids who are highly distractible," says the sch-ol principal, Eileen Reiter. "This helps them relax and focus.
We also give them regular movement breaks-all these strategies help."
Then, still in silence, the teachers hold up Popsicle sticks one by one, each with a student's name-a signal for the pupils to go indi vidually over to their cubbies and bring back their special, fist-sized stuffed animals: striped tigers, a pink pig, a yellow puppy, a purple donkey. The boys and girls find a spot on the floor to lie down, put their stuffed animal buddy on their belly, and wait, hands to their sides.
They follow the directions of a man's friendly voice leading them through some deep belly breathing, as they count to themselves, "one, two, three," while they take a long exhalation and inhala tion.1 Then they squeeze and relax their eyes; stretch their mouth wide open, sticking out their tongue; and squeeze their hands into a ball, relaxing each in turn. It ends with the voice saying, "Now sit up, and feel relaxed," and as they do, they all seem to be just that.
Another chime, and still in silence the kids on cue take their places in a circle on the rug, and report on what they experienced: "It feels nice inside." "I felt very lazy because it calmed my body." "It made me have happy thoughts."
The orderliness of the exercise and the calm focus in the class room make it hard to believe eleven of the twenty-two kids are classified as having "special needs": cognitive impairments like dys lexia, speech difficulties or partial deafness, attention deficit hyper activity disorder, points on the autism spectrum.
"We've got many kids with problems, but when we do this, they don't act out," says Miss Emily. But the week before, a glitch in the school day meant Room 302 skipped this ritual. "It was like they were a different class," says Miss Emily. "They couldn't sit still; they were all over the place."
"Our school has some kids who are highly distractible," says the sch-ol principal, Eileen Reiter. "This helps them relax and focus.
We also give them regular movement breaks-all these strategies help."
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