How Breathing Techniques Can Help Preschoolers Learn Optimally
Breathing is essential to life. How we breathe can affect that life. In my last post, Breathing and the Brain Part 1 https://preschoolsos.com/breathing-and-the-brain-part-1/(opens in a new tab), we discussed how the brain functions and changes with response to breathing and certain triggers. We discovered ways to teach preschoolers how to breathe to help their brains calm so they can learn optimally.
In my class, we take it a step further. We have a place in our classroom that is called the Feelings (or Calm Down) Center. It is located in the corner, away from other children and distractions, and is the “quietest” place in the room.
I realize there is not a “quiet” place in ANY preschool class, but look around and see if there is a place that would work. Make it as far away from the building and home living centers. Those tend to be the noisiest. (We will discuss more in-depth how to set up a classroom in a different post).
Classroom Zones
Look at your class in three zones:
- Loud
- Medium
- Quiet
Our Loud Zone is
- Blocks
- Building
- Music/Movement
- Home Living/Dramatic Play Center
The Medium Zone is
- Math
- ABC
- Learning Games
- Science
- Puzzles/Manipulatives Center.
The Quiet Zone is
- Art
- Books
- Writing
- Audio/Listening
- Technology
- and surprisingly, the Sand Center.
I don’t know how you have your classroom set up, but the way you do will alleviate a lot of your problems.
Try to keep the loud zone on one side of the room, the quiet on the opposite side, and the medium in the middle.
For those children needing extra help to self-regulate, the Feelings/Calm Down Center needs to be in the Quiet Zone. That way, if other children are close, they are usually preoccupied with quiet activities.
Setting Up A Feelings Center
Here is part of what a Feelings/Calm Down Center could look like.
As you can see, it’s not very big. If you do not have available quiet space, you need to get creative, like using:
- a child’s play tent (with the flap open so they are visible)
- a blanket or pillow to sit on
- a large stuffed animal to sit or lay on
- under a table
- the book center
- a bean bag
- a comfy chair
- a cardboard box
Once you have your space, then you can begin to collect items for it. We rotate items throughout the year, but before you put anything in the center, you have to show them how to use it first. Items might include:
- books on feelings – include a wide range of emotions
- sensory bottles – it mesmerizes them and helps some calm down
- pinwheel to blow
- stuffed animal or pillow to hug
- mirror to see what they look like and how they feel
- emotion mirrors
- puppets or dolls to act out feelings
- emotion posters with children’s faces (make your own if you cannot find or afford one)
- stress/squeezy/squishy balls
- bendables
- fidget toys (make sure you get the preschool version to avoid choking hazards)
- anything they can stretch, pull, or squeeze and not destroy
Once you have your Feelings Center set up, now you can begin to put into practice what you have learned.
How To Utilize The Feelings Center
Remind them of the breathing exercises from the previous post to reset their brain. Here is a quick recap:
- Breathe in for 5-10 seconds (smell the flower)
- Hold it for 5-10 seconds
- Exhale for 5-10 seconds (blow out the birthday candles)
- Repeat
- Also, lay on their back with their hands on their belly and heart. Watch their belly rise and fall with each breath. Have them feel their heart beating slower and slower as they relax.
Use the objects in your center to help them calm down. They may know they feel out of control, but they may not be available to verbalize it.
By showing them pictures you can say, “Point to the picture that shows what you feel like. Do you feel angry? Let’s practice breathing. Smell the flower, blow out the candle. Good.”
If they are in a frenzied state, no amount of words will help. Now is not the time for solutions. Just keep reminding them to breathe as noted above and eventually, they will begin to calm.
Once that happens, then you can:
- Ask “Can you show me what made you angry with this doll?”
- Ask “Why don’t you play with this toy and tell me about it.”
- Focus them on an object. It gets out their frustration and tends to get them to open up about their feelings more.
- Provide solutions only after they are calm and only after the event or trigger that set them off in the first place is over.
After they know what to do, they will soon begin to do it on their own. I have had students go to the center on their own, breathe, play with a toy that helps them, and return to doing what they were doing previously.
How Yoga Can Calm The Chaos
There are times when your class as a whole needs to calm down at the same time. Not everyone can fit in the feelings center at once! That’s where Yoga comes in.
Children, and maybe even you, need a brain reset from time to time. Things can get out of hand in a heartbeat, and their emotions, as well as yours, need a chance to settle down.
There are a few Yoga poses I use to help. I have never taken a yoga class. I just googled a few kid poses and made up the rest. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Make it work for you and your class.
I tailor it with the theme we are learning for the week, but it is basically the same thing. Depending on how you approach them, the kids think it is a game and they want to participate!
To start with, use a signal to gain their attention. I use a desk bell.
I ring it or get one of the kids to, and in a loud nonscreaming voice yell, “1, 2, 3, look at me!”, then they yell, “3, 2, 1, let’s have some fun!” It takes a little practice but if they know they are going to have fun they will usually participate.
Once I have their attention, whatever our theme is, for instance, apples, I might say,
“Let’s see how fast we can touch the ground and pick up an apple. Put it in your basket.”
Now use both hands and reach way up to the top of the tree. Stand on your tippy-toes and reach for that apple still hanging on the branch.”
Breathe 3 times stretching higher with each breathe.
“Let’s pick it and reach down and put it in the basket. Breathe in and out. Now let’s reach for another one. ”
Repeat.
The sky is the limit on what you can do. It will work for any theme or time of year. Just learn some basic poses and get creative with how to use them. Check out these printable yoga poses from Fun With Mama. https://www.funwithmama.com/yoga-cards-for-kids/.
You can use them to guide you, but pretty soon, you will get the hang of it. You could even print off a set, laminate it, put it on a ring clip or in a notebook for the Feelings Center for kids to practice on their own.
The important thing to remember with each exercise is to focus on breathing so the brain can calm and therefore, calm the chaos in the room.
It’s a quick win so everyone can go back to what they were doing, only with more focus and less stress.
If you would like to know more about how I calm the chaos and use breathing techniques in the classroom, or if you have a question I can answer, send me an email. I would be glad to help! holley@preschoolsos.com
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