Janai Mestrovich, Ashland, OR, (BS/MS, Family & Child Development) has been teaching Early Childhood Education and Social/Emotional Learning for 42 years. She specializes in '3D' experiences that help her students visualize and feel the lesson as part of the SuperKid Power curriculum. The 'breathing sphere' opens and closes to show kids how the body/lungs/diaphragm work inside them and Janai opens and closes it as she counts out numbers for inhale, hold and exhale. In the 'staying calm inside' (the eye) storm exercise, Janai has each student work the breathing sphere as the remaining kids encircle the student staying calm as the class makes noise with their balloons.
Each student gets to be the 'eye' of the storm and remain calm by using the breathing sphere ignoring the noise (storm) brewing all around them. The exercise is essential towards teaching independent action and responsibility and reliance on use of calming effect of ongoing breathing. The kids love it.
The kids express the experience by using the body outline to show where the stress is (all around them, denoted by 'X's') and where they feel calm (their heart).
Calm Eye in the middle of a STRESS STORM. See those balloon punch balls? Working with kindergarten children today, we practiced actually BEING the Calm Eye in the middle of a Stress Storm. One child at a time stood in the middle of a circle holding the breathing sphere doing deep belly button breathing. All others created a stress storm and made loud noises as they punched their balloon punch balls making racket, too. Every single child was SO proud of her/himself when staying calm with all the stress going on around them. 3D learning - making it real to plant solid seeds of SUPERKID POWER! Left a poster for them as a reminder. We had SO MUCH FUN practicing this life saving, health giving skill. ALL CHILDREN DESERVE THE RIGHT TO LEARN SUCH SKILLS and feel like SUPERKIDS!
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