Lesson Introduction & Overview

Young people begin to learn about mindfulness practice by learning and then moving through a series of yoga poses.

Activity

1. Prepare young people for their yoga practice with the follow discussion questions and topics:
   1. Do you know what yoga is? Have you done it before? Wait for answers, allow youth to demonstrate poses if they know any, and then explain that yoga is a way to exercise your body, your breath and your mind all at the same time. There are many different types of yoga and ways to do yoga.
   2. Have you ever heard anyone talk about something called mindfulness? Do you know why mindfulness can be a good thing? Wait for answers and then explain that mindfulness means paying attention to and noticing what’s happening—such as things you’re seeing, hearing and feeling—without deciding if they are good or bad. Mindfulness can help you be happier and healthier. If you are being mindful, you are less likely to get really upset or sad and more likely to be calm and happy. It’s not something that’s always easy, but anyone can learn to do it.
2. Explain that an important part of yoga is paying attention to your breath. Ask young people to lie down on the floor and then give the following instructions for noticing their breathing: Place your hands on your belly. Breathe in deeply through your nose and feel your belly rise. Hold for just a second while your belly is filled with air, and then slowly breathe out through your mouth. Do this five more times. Invite young people to try to continue this same breathing pattern throughout their yoga practice.
3. Teach young people each of the eight yoga poses they will be doing in their practice. Do this part fairly quickly so you can get to the actual sequenced practice. It’s okay if young people don’t catch on right away and need more instruction during the sequence. Yoga is an ongoing practice and there is no exact right way to do a pose. Unless a young person is at risk of hurting themselves, if they are pretty close to the pose let them be.

Sun Breath

1. Sit on the floor with your legs crossed or in your chair with your feet flat on the floor. Sit up tall and keep your back straight.
2. Put the palms of your hands together at the center of your chest.
3. Close your eyes and take three big sun breaths. Here’s how:
   • When you breathe in deeply, raise your arms above your head in the shape of a big round sun.
   • Then breathe out and bring your arms back down so that your palms are together at the center of your chest.
4. The sun breath allows you to become centered and focused on your breath.

Space Float

1. Sit on the floor with your legs crossed or in a chair with your feet flat on the floor.
2. Take hold of your outside ankle. If you are sitting on a chair, hold onto the edges of the chair by the outside of your legs, above the knees.
3. Breathe in deeply as you stretch your body forward, chest and stomach out.
4. Breathe out as you slump back; spine is curved, chest is caved in.
5. Space float gives you a flexible spine. It keeps your back muscles relaxed and strong. It also helps you digest your food.

Shooting Star

1. Sit on the floor with your feet in front of you and your hands behind you on the floor.
2. Breathe in and push your body up (like a backwards push-up).
3. Make yourself into a perfectly straight line, like a shooting star, by pushing your stomach up and point your toes away from you.
4. Try to hold this pose for a count of 10. (You can hold this pose longer during the sequenced practice).
5. Shooting star makes your arms, legs and stomach muscles strong.
6. You can also do this pose while sitting in a chair. Hold the edges of the chair and push up like the description above.

Moon Walk

1. Sit in your chair or lie down on the floor on your back.
2. Begin to walk in the air. Keep your right leg straight and lift it up as you lift your left arm. Breathe in as you lift your leg and arm.
3. Breathe out as your arm and leg go down.
4. Then breathe in again as you lift your left leg and right arm together.
5. Breathe out as your arm and leg go down.
6. Switch sides and keep going. Lift your leg and stretch your arm straight up toward the sky.
7. Moon walk balances the two sides of your brain and helps you think better.

Cobra

1. Lie on your stomach on the floor. If you are sitting in a chair, sit up straight with your feet flat on the floor.
2. Put your hands on the floor under your shoulders. If you are sitting in a chair, put your hands on your knees or a desk.
3. Stretch your upper body up high, with your arms straight and your stomach resting on the ground. If you are sitting, lean forward slightly, push your hands against your knees or desk and push your shoulders back to look up slightly. Keep your neck straight and in line with your spine.
4. Stretch your head as far up as you can and HISS! Feel the stretch in your spine.
5. You are a very fierce cobra snake!
6. Keep stretching and breathing in and out. Make a hissing sound when you breathe out. Continue this breathing and hissing for a minute.
7. If you are on the floor, breathe in and lift your “tail” (feet) up by bending your knees. Try to bring your head and “tail” (feet) close together. Can they touch each other?

Elephant

1. Stand up.
2. Bend forward with your arms hanging down.
3. Clasp your hands together, with fingers interlocked.
4. Walk around the room, bent over, and swing your trunk.
5. After a minute, stretch your trunk high up into the air. Lean back and let out a big elephant sound like a horn!

Relaxed Monkey Pose

1. Kneel on the floor on your knees and sit back on your heels. If you are sitting in a chair, keep your feet flat on the floor.
2. Lean forward and stretch your arms forward to the ground. Continue stretching as far as you can. Can you touch your forehead to the floor? If you are sitting on a chair, just reach down to the floor as far as you can.
3. Stretch your arms out as far as they will go; allow your body to relax.
4. Take in big monkey breaths. Feel your chest rise with each breath in and your chest relax toward the floor with each breath out. Breathe in and out at your own pace. Relax for one minute.

Sea Turtle Deep Relaxation

1. Lie on the floor on your back with your legs straight and arms at your sides. Or sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor and hands on your desk or lap.
2. The palms of your hands are facing up and resting on the floor, desk or lap.
3. Close your eyes and breathe gently.
4. Focus on your breath. If you have any thoughts or distractions, try to let them go and go back to focusing on your breath.
5. You might need a word to focus on or a favorite place to imagine like lying or sitting on a beach. Imagine the warm sand, the hot sun and the cool breeze off the water. Your breath sounds like the waves! As you breathe in, listen! It sounds like the waves coming up to the shore. As you breathe out, imagine the waves going back out to sea. Keep breathing with the waves for another minute or two.

Move through the eight poses in a guided sequence.

At the end of Sea Turtle, give young people time to slowly sit back up. Ask each person to share with the group one thing they noticed during their yoga practice. Thank everyone for participating.

Conclusion

A nice practice in mindfulness is gratitude. At the end of your activity, thank young people for participating and express your appreciation for some aspect of what happened.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English, Spanish, Somali and Hmong so that families can practice mindfulness through movement at home.

Lesson Introduction & Overview

This short lesson is aimed at getting youth to think about their responses to stressful or challenging situations, and to respond positively rather than by adding to the difficulty.

Activity

1. Show the What Pizza Wears Gloves video and The Two Arrows Explainer video.

2. Talk briefly about what they noticed and what they thought about these two videos. Ask if anyone has any questions about them.

3. Then ask about stress:

• Do you ever feel stressed out? Have you ever felt like the Pizza or the person who dropped the lunch tray? What does stress feel like in your body and in your thoughts?
• What causes stress in your life?
• Do your family members or friends ever get stressed? How can you tell? How do they act?
• What do you think causes stress for other people?

4. Then talk about how the videos mention “mindfulness” and “Change to Chill.” Ask youth if they’ve ever heard those terms before and what they think they mean. Talk about their ideas and share your own.

5. Show the youth the pens, sticky notes and wall space. Explain that as a group you are going to write as many ideas as you can about how to stress less or deal with stress when it comes up. Give some examples like, “go for a run,” “listen to music,” or “make slime with your friends.”

6. Give youth a chance to post their own ideas and read through others. Talk briefly about:

• What’s your favorite way to de-stress?
• Did you get any new ideas today?
• What’s one thing you might like to try next time you feel stressed out?

Conclusion

Keep the wall of notes up for as long as seems helpful. Consider also sharing the ideas through social media or school resources.

Additional Resources:

Additional videos:

• http://www.changetochill.org/video/

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English, Spanish, Somali and Hmong so that families can stress less at home.

Lesson Introduction & Overview

Emerging research shows many powerful benefits of approaching life with an attitude of gratitude. The benefits of being grateful can include mental wellness, school success, generosity, and even physical health. An attitude of gratitude isn’t something that people are born with or not; very young children can begin to learn skills and practices that will help them move through life with an appreciative mindset, even when dealing with challenges. This lesson focuses on teaching young children about the concept of gratitude and some ways they can start to incorporate gratitude practices into their lives.

Activity

Gratefuls and Grumbles Circle

Gather young people in circle. Explain that you are going to spend a little time thinking about gratitude. Ask if any of them know that word and what it means. If they don’t, tell them that being grateful or feeling gratitude means being thankful. Ask what they think of when they hear the word thankful or thanks. Give them a few minutes to talk about what it means.

Share with the young people that every day you personally have things in your life that make you feel gratitude, or thankful. Give an example from today.

Then explain that every day you also have things that happen that feel hard, that make you grumble. Ask if they know the word grumble. Talk for a few minutes about some examples of grumbles, ranging from small irritations to bigger worries or troubles. Give a few examples.

Then explain the activity: Each person in the circle is going to have a chance to share with the group one GRATEFUL and one GRUMBLE. You can say something like, “When it’s your turn, say your name. Then say, ‘One thing I am grateful for today is _________, and one thing that makes me grumble today is, ___________.” Give your own example using your name and a grateful and a grumble you shared earlier.

Begin the activity. Younger children may have a hard time with this. Be patient and coach them through it. Remember that you are teaching them a process. It’s okay if they stumble.

At the end, thank everyone for participating. Explain that even when we can’t make the grumbles go away, thinking about things we’re grateful for can help us feel better.

Gratitude Breathing: 

Once everyone has shared, transition into a breathing exercise that focuses on gratitude. You can explain it like this:

“Choose a way to sit that’s comfortable for you. You can be on chair, cross-legged, or on your heels. Place your right hand on your belly and your left hand on your chest. Take a deep breath in for four counts. Then breathe out through your nose for four counts. Keep your lips closed and just let the air move through your nose. Feel the rise and fall of your chest and belly.”

You can use a Hoberman sphere to demonstrate to the young people what their chests and bellies will be doing when they breathe in and out.

Once they have the idea of how to do the breathing, ask them to think of some of the things they said they are grateful for during each inhale and exhale. They may even get a few more ideas as they go through the process.

Continue this deep belly gratitude breathing for a few minutes. Let them know it’s okay to close their eyes if they want to.

Pay It Forward: 

Draw young people’s attention back to you. Ask if anyone thought during their breathing of a person for whom they are grateful.  Explain that it’s important to let other people know when we’re grateful for them or for things they do. It makes them feel good, it makes us feel good, and it makes the world a better place when people show appreciation for one another. Pick one person in your school, organization or community who you want to show gratitude for as a group. You can pre-select this person, or use a group process. On the flip chart or butcher paper, write, “Thank you, _______________, for ___________________.  We are grateful for you! Or choose a message of your own. Then invite each young person to use the paints to leave a handprint on the paper. Once the paint is dry you can deliver the “Gratitude card” to the recipient.

Conclusion

Like physical fitness, gratitude is something that has to be built and maintained. Fortunately, also like fitness, it’s something everyone can work on, no matter where they are starting. Different practices work more or less for different people. The activities in this lesson are just a few examples. The parent newsletter has additional ideas. Consider making gratitude practice a regular part of your classroom or group and see what happens!

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English and Spanish so that families can practice an attitude of gratitude at home.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog

An Attitude of Gratitude

Additional Instructor Resources

• The Youth Gratitude Project

Lesson Overview

This lesson explores what it means to stay safe online. It focuses on cyberbullying and helping young people understand what it is, reflect on their experiences of it, and learn ways to prevent it or stop it.

Introduction

Cyberbullying happens when kids bully each other through electronic technology such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, group chats, online games, or other platforms. Bullying, as described by stopbullying.gov, is “unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose.”

Cyberbullying can happen in very small ways, such as consistently posting mean comments or messages, or very significant ways, such as spreading widely unkind or false information about someone.

This lesson focuses on helping kids understand what cyberbullying is, why it’s not okay, and how to stop it.

Activity

1. Talk about cyberbullying. Have a short conversation using the following questions:
   • Have you ever heard of cyberbullying? What do you know about cyberbullying? Think of a time when you saw/heard of cyberbullying – what are some examples of cyberbullying your thought of? (Suggest no names are used, rather “he” or “she”/”him” or “her”) Write their responses on a flipchart, whiteboard or chalkboard.
   • Are there things people do to one another online that could hurt feelings but that most people don’t considered bullying? What are some examples? Write these down as well. They might mention things like making mean comments on social media or posting pictures of others without permission.
2. Explain that cyberbullying happens when people are intentionally and consistently mean to each other through electronic technology. If you’d like, you can read the definition from stopbullying.gov, “…unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose.” It can happen in small ways, such as comments on posts, or very significant ways, such as threatening someone or spreading unkind or false information about them. Cyberbullying hurts the people who are bullied. It can also hurt people who bully by making them look bad and making them feel sad about their own choices.
3. Do the Online and On Guard…Is It Cyberbullying? activity, which describes different scenarios and asks youth to sort them into four different categories of social interaction, including bullying. As they sort, facilitate a discussion about why they put the items where they did. There may be disagreements. Try to come to a shared decision about where to put each item, letting them know that every situation is unique and this activity is just to get them thinking. Validate all their ideas to encourage more discussion. Allow them to talk about their own similar experiences but stop them if they start to talk about specific examples that involve other people, letting them know that telling other people’s uncomfortable stories can actually be a form of bullying. Questions to help with the conversation can include:
   • Why did you choose this category?
   • What if we change something about this example? Would that put it in a different category? What kind of change would cause you to move it?
   • What other examples would you put in each of these categories?
4. As a group, make a list of things that people can do to help stop cyberbullying. Here are some things you can add if they aren’t mentioned:
   • If someone is being mean to you or someone else online tell a teacher, parent or other trusted adult.
   • If someone is being mean to you or someone else online, tell them to stop. Sometimes quietly standing up for yourself or someone else is enough to convince a bullying to back off.
   • Only accept friend/follow requests from people you know in real life. Set privacy settings so information about you (including images) are not visible to the public. Every time you post or share, carefully consider whether you want it to live on forever, because it might.
   • Use good passwords and never share them with anyone. Generally, the longer the password, the stronger it is. Adding complexity, such as uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters, makes it even stronger.
     • uppercase letter (e.g. A, B, C, D, E)
     • lowercase letter (e.g. a, b, c, d, e)
     • number (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
     • special character or symbol (e.g., ! @ # $ % & * _ + ~ . ,>)
     • Make your password memorable for you. Don’t use information people know about you, such as family members’ names, pet names, addresses or license plate numbers. And don’t repeat characters more than three times in a row.
   • Ask your parents or caregiver to help you if someone if cyberbullying to help you decide how you should respond. If your caregive is asking for your password – maybe be willing to share it so that they can help protect you. Remember, sometimes caregivers ask for passwords not because they don’t trust you, but because they are helping to protect your from cyberbullying!
5. Create a “Bully-Free Zone” agreement or pledge. Ask them to commit to a short list of things they will do to help keep each other safe and healthy online and to sign the agreement. This can include simple things like, “Be kind,” “Ask before posting,” and “Treat others with respect.”
   One possibility is to use the THINK model:
   Always THINK Before You Post
   T=Is it true?
   H=Is it honest?
   I=Is it inspiring?
   N=Is it necessary
   K=Is it kind?
   If not, should you post it?
6. What to do if you or a friend is being bullied:
   • Support them by listening to their story and reassuring that their feelings are fair. “I totally get it.” “That is not OK that they did XYZ.”
   • Offer to help them find an adult who can help them problem solve. “I think we should go talk to Mrs. XX – she always knows what to do” or, “My dad helped me one time when BLANK happened – I think he could help with this too.”
   • If your friend is nervous about getting help but you really feel like they need help, talk to a trusted adult who can help you problem solve your job as a friend. You can start by saying “I want to talk to you about something in confidence” so that they know it is an important and sensitive topic.

Conclusion

There is no one easy way to stop any kind of bullying from ever happening, but by introducing young people to these ideas now you help them start to build the tools to prevent or stop it from happening if and when they encounter it.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can continue discussing how to recognize, prevent or stop cyberbullying.

Additional Instructor Resources

• stopbullying.gov
• stompoutbullying.org
• Is it okay to snoop on your child online?
• Living Better With Our Devices

Lesson Overview

This lesson explores what it means to leave a digital footprint and discusses what a digital imprint is. It helps young people learn about their own online presence and activity, and make changes if they decide to. This lesson also includes an interactive worksheet and online activities.

Introduction

Staying safe online means different things to different people. Knowing what your digital footprint is, is part of staying safe and healthy. A digital footprint is the trail of information you leave behind when you use the internet. Depending on your values, priorities, age, life stage, school, family expectations and other factors, you’ll want to set and keep boundaries that work for you.

Activity

1. Talk about digital imprint.
   • A digital imprint is the impact that your online activities leave on you, including things you see, hear or read and also things other people say and do to you online.
   • A digital imprint isn’t necessarily good or bad. It exists and your thoughts and feelings about it and the effects it has on you depend on a lot of different factors such as your values, priorities, age, life stage, school and family expectations.
   • What do you see, hear and read online? Are there things you feel like are a waste of your time or disturbing to you? What do your parents think? Do they have rules about what’s OK and what’s not?
2. Introduce the idea of a digital footprint.
   • A digital footprint is the trail of information you leave behind when you use the internet.
   • A digital footprint isn’t necessarily good or bad. It exists and your thoughts and feelings about it and the effects it has on you depend on a lot of different factors such as your values, priorities, age, life stage, school and family expectations.
   • Your digital footprint is made by things that are visible such as social media posts from you and other people. This includes photos, status updates, check-ins at locations, online groups and sites that you’ve liked or joined, and posts from other people that you’ve shared.
   • It also includes things that can be learned about you based on your activity such as websites you visit, personal information you enter, messages and emails you send, and so on.
   • When you really start to think it about, it’s A LOT of data!
3. Do some exploration of digital footprints.
   • Ask for suggestions of famous people to search for online. As a group on a screen that everyone can see, search for those people to give them an idea of how easy it can be to find content about individuals.
   • Ask them to work in small groups and make lists of words that describe the type of content they find when they search for those famous people. Make different lists for each person. Share some of those words with the larger group.
   • Have a conversation with questions like: Are these words mostly positive? Negative? How do you think these people feel about their online presence? How would you feel if all of this information was out there about you?
4. Hand out the My Digital Footprint worksheet. Allow them to work individually or in pairs to explore their own online presence. Have them look at all the social media sites they use (Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) and also do an internet search of their names. What do they find? What do they think about that? Are there things they would like to change? Has anyone tagged you in something that makes you uncomfortable or gotten access to your accounts and posted about you?
5. Reconvene the group and talk about what they found. Were there any surprises? Do they have any ideas for things they’d like to change?

Conclusion

What can you do if you discover things you don’t like about your digital footprint?

1. Tighten your restrictions on social media:
   • Only accept friend/follow requests from people you know in real life.
   • Set privacy setting so that information about you (including images) is not visible to the public.
   • Change settings, if necessary, so that others need your permission to tag you in posts.
2. Delete things that you don’t want others to see. They may not completely go away if they have been shared by others or stored somewhere, but you can usually at least make them harder to find.
3. Reset passwords. Make sure they are strong and do not share them!
4. Carefully consider every time you post or share whether you want it to live on forever, because it might.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can continue discussing the impact of a digital footprint and digital imprint and necessary actions to stay safe online.

Additional Instructor Resources

• Is it okay to snoop on your child online?
• Living Better With Our Devices