Paying Attention with Animal Breaths

Introduction

• Gather students into a circle either seated in chairs or on the floor.
• Remind students of the raised attention signal and the talking piece from prevous lessons (Raised attention signal: Explain to students that when they see you raise your hand it’s a signal to stop whatever they are doing, raise their hand in the air and quietly look and listen to you. Talking Piece: Explain that when they gather in a circle to learn and discuss important things, they will use a talking piece. Whoever has the talking piece can speak, and they do this to make sure they don’t talk over anyone and listen to the person who is sharing).
• Welcoming: Circle time always begins with everyone being welcomed into the circle. Model welcoming a student and then have each student welcome the student sitting next to them. Be sure to rotate who sits where so students introduce different classmates. Example: “Hello Jasmine, welcome to our circle!”
• Optional: Create a new greeting every week. For example, using a small ball or bean bag, have students toss the object to each other once they greet another student, then the student with the object greets the next student, etc.
• Once every student has been welcomed retrieve the talking piece.
• Share that today they will be learning about a fun way to calm themselves and get present using something called "animal breaths."