The inclusion of mental health education in elementary classrooms has become more present in recent years. Educators have started to realize that mental health is extremely important, and that we have to support our studentsâ mental health.
Kelsey and I decided to explore online resources that are available for educators to support mental health in the classroom. Watch our Youtube video on the websites Headspace, and Calm!
Headspace
The first website we came across was Headspace, which also has a downloadable app for smartphones, and iPads. Headspace is a great tool for anyone looking to try out meditation or bring it into the classroom. They offer free subscriptions for K-12 educators, you just have to select the school you teach at and verify you are an educator.Â
Headspace offers:
- Videos and guides for teachers on how to guide meditation.
- Videos to play for students when they need a brain break or a calming meditation.
- Videos to support the teachersâ mental health.
- Free printable posters teachers can put up in their classrooms that demonstrate how to meditate, and the importance of mental health (you donât need to sign up to access these!). Example of poster below:
Since we arenât teachers yet, we weren’t able to access all of these resources, but it seems like a great free website for educators to use to support the mental health of their students.
Calm
Calm is another popular app used for meditation, and similar to Headspace, they offer free resources for educators. Teachers can sign up through Calm, and receive a variety of age-specific meditations to help calm their students down.
Calm offers:
- A downloadable â30 Days of Mindfulness in the Classroomâ guide that comes with the audio & video tracks you need for each day (you donât need to sign up for this one!)
- A downloadable âSelf-Care Guide for Teachersâ (you also donât need to sign up for this one!)
- Age specific meditations & calming music
- Inspirational talks done by people like Lebron James
YouTube Videos
There are of course so many free resources educators can find on YouTube to help support their students’ mental health! Youtube videos are always great if you are short on time but want to incorporate mindfulness into your classroom. We split it up into 2 categories: meditation videos, and brain break videos.
Meditations
The meditation videos on YouTube are so great for helping students clear their minds and calm down when they need some quiet time. There are a lot of options when you look up classroom meditation on YouTube, and we picked a couple examples to include here.
Yoga With Adriene is a popular creator on YouTube, known for her free yoga videos. She has a video called Classroom Meditation for all ages, and it is a 6 minute video that will give students a chance to take a few breaths and relax if they need to. This is a more serious one, so it might be more suited to older students, in intermediate elementary and middle school.
GoNoodle is a popular YouTube account for videos for kids, and they have a 5 minute guided meditation that would be great for younger students who need a break and some quiet time. Here it is below:
Brain Break Videos
There are so many different brain breaks that you can find on Youtube. Because there are such a variety of brain breaks, you can pick ones that you think your class will enjoy. For example, right now Wordle is very popular, so choosing the Wordle brain break will make your students enjoy themselves. In addition, there are brain breaks for both younger and older aged students, you just have to search for them! Below are a few of the many brain breaks on Youtube.
Wordle brain break:
Encanto brain break:
Mario vs Bowser Jump Battle| Brain Break| Just Dance:
Spring Dance Freeze – Brain Break:
Considerations
- Although these websites are a great place for teachers to go for resources, they need to be prepared in case the technology doesnât work properly. A backup plan is necessary to work around technology malfunctions.
- There has always been a debate about how much screen time is too much. Youtube videos can be amazing, but is the extra screen time for the students necessary? Teachers can find other brain breaks, and mindfulness activities that they can simply print off and bring to their classrooms.
Thanks for reading!