A colleague of mine had been trying a Body Scan activity with his grade 8 class. Essentially, this was a form of progressive muscle relaxation, where the students would lay on the floor, eyes closed, and follow the instructions given by a pre-recorded voice (female and male versions) to bring attention to different parts of the body (practicing mindfulness), breathe into any tension, then relax it, eventually working on each part of the body. This takes about eight and half minutes, and is a resource from Anxiety BC. (There is also a script you can read from rather than using the prerecorded versions).
Knowing the success we were having with our breathing activity, I decided to try this as well. It worked fairly well, but I didn’t think it was as successful as the breathing, and the class voted that most preferred the breathing over body scan. Due to time constraints, I felt I couldn’t do both every day, so I let go of the body scan and persisted with our breathing activity. I believe this was the right choice for this group of students. However, Body Scan could be a great option for some students, and may be a positive way to end a P.E. class and transition into the next class/activity.
Knowing the success we were having with our breathing activity, I decided to try this as well. It worked fairly well, but I didn’t think it was as successful as the breathing, and the class voted that most preferred the breathing over body scan. Due to time constraints, I felt I couldn’t do both every day, so I let go of the body scan and persisted with our breathing activity. I believe this was the right choice for this group of students. However, Body Scan could be a great option for some students, and may be a positive way to end a P.E. class and transition into the next class/activity.
Links:
Female voice: http://www.anxietybc.com/resources/audio/mindfulness-mindful-body-scan-female-voice
Male voice: http://www.anxietybc.com/resources/audio/mindfulness-mindful-body-scan-male-voice
Script: http://youth.anxietybc.com/sites/default/files/Body_Scan.pdf
Female voice: http://www.anxietybc.com/resources/audio/mindfulness-mindful-body-scan-female-voice
Male voice: http://www.anxietybc.com/resources/audio/mindfulness-mindful-body-scan-male-voice
Script: http://youth.anxietybc.com/sites/default/files/Body_Scan.pdf