Teaching Resources

Resources for practicing and teaching mindfulness and meditation, kindness and compassion, generosity and gratitude, social responsibility and social-emotional skills.

Photo by Nine Köpfer on Unsplash

NEW Posts

Thought-Provoking Videos About Mindfulness and Meditation

Breath-Based Practices for Mindfulness or Stress Reduction

Exploring Our Humanity through Mindfulness: What Our Bodies Can Teach Us (guest post by Ira Rabois on integrating mindfulness and visualization with academic content)

Are You New to Teaching Mindfulness?

Many teachers find this site because they've heard about the benefits of mindfulness and are looking for 'mindfulness scripts' or activities. 

Please don't teach your students meditation or formal mindfulness practices unless you have experience doing these practices yourself and have some training in working with the student population you plan to teach.

You may actually want to leave this page for now and go to the Start Here page, which has advice on teaching different ages of students in different contexts. 




Activities for Practicing and Teaching Mindfulness, Compassion, Gratitude, and Social-Emotional Skills

I've gotten a lot of requests to use these activities in various contexts, and I've found some of this content illegally copied onto other sites.  Please link to these activities; do not copy them to your own site.  (See the FAQs for more information.)


Posters, Quizzes, and Infographics About Mindfulness and Self-Care

Song Playlists for Teachers

Songs for teaching mindfulness, compassion, gratitude, social-emotional skills and social responsibility.

Video Playlists for Teachers and Teacher Trainers

Creative Ways to Make a Difference: short videos about people with unique abilities and inclinations supporting the community in creative and unusual ways.

Inspiring Videos of Young People Serving the World: children, teens, and young adults who've made a difference in their own communities or communities in other parts of the world.  

Inspiring Videos of Service to Humanity: helping child soldiers, victims of human trafficking, and former gang members, and providing 'spiritual and mental nutrition' to the starving.

Thought-Provoking Videos About Empathy, Compassion, and Service: how to defeat bullying, support people from different backgrounds, and communicate respectfully even if we have opposing viewpoints.

Thought-Provoking Videos About Mindfulness and Meditation: a variety of perspectives (secular, spiritual, and humorous) on the benefits and challenges of mindfulness and meditation.

Videos about Kindness, Compassion, and Service (part 1):  short videos about small acts of kindness and large acts of philanthropy. 

Videos about Kindness, Compassion, and Service (part 2): short videos about empathy and aid for people from different backgrounds.

Self-Care Videos: Gentle Yoga, Mindful Movement, and Indoor Walking

Noncompetitive Games and Group Activities  
This might be a good place to start if you teach kids and don't have training in teaching mindfulness.  (You might also be interested in the gratitude and five senses activities for individuals or groups, in the section below.)

• Human Camera: a mindfulness activity to engage the senses    
• Marble Roll: a noncompetitive game for teaching mindfulness     
• No Winners or Losers: noncompetitive games for kids 

Activities for Individuals or Groups 
The following practices and activities should be appropriate or adaptable for most contexts: adults or kids, individually or in a class.  (Within reason: I'm obviously not advocating that groups of children start driving, but the 'Red, Orange, Yellow' practice best fits in the five senses category.) 

Five Senses 

• Counting Sounds: a mindful walking practice 
• A Dozen Ways to Explore the Five Senses
• Five Contemplative Art Practices
• Mindful Moments in Nature (includes mindful listening, tactile awareness, and a mindful art project)
• Noticing the Five Senses: a daily mindfulness log
• Five Senses Snack: a mindful eating chart
• Rainbow Walk: a mindfulness activity to move the body and rest the mind
• Red, Orange, Yellow: a mindful driving practice

Gratitude

• More Than Saying Thank You: Activities That Encourage Awe for the Ordinary  
• 9 Simple but Powerful Gratitude Practices to Share with Your Students
• Secular and Spiritual Perspectives on Gratitude
• Songs About Gratitude, part 1
• Songs About Gratitude, part 2
• Tales of Generosity: Lessons on Gratitude and Compassion

Mindful Communication

• Changing the Script : a mindful way to handle annoyance  
• Mindful Cell Phone Use, for Students and Teachers
• Power Struggles: case studies in mindful communication  
• T.H.I.N.K. Before You Speak: case studies in mindful speech  
• T.H.I.N.K. Before You Speak 2: case studies in mindful speech      

Integrating Mindfulness and Compassion Training with Academic Content

• Exploring Our Humanity through Mindfulness: What Our Bodies Can Teach Us
• Mindful Listening: Only If You Listen Can You Hear: teaching students how to participate respectfully in a discussion or a debate

• Mindful or Mindless? analyzing characters in books and movies 
• Using Mindful Questioning to Enhance Academic Learning: suggestions for integrating mindfulness instruction with academic content in English, Philosophy, Drama, History, and Psychology.
• Using Mindfulness and Empathic Imagination in Teaching Myths

Quotations and Class Discussion Topics 
Many of these would also be appropriate for journaling or as reflective writing assignments.

• Metaphors for Mindfulness and Meditation

• Mindfulness and Happiness: quotations about appreciating the present moment, letting go of attachments, embracing moderation, and finding meaning.
• The Power of Forgiveness: Quotations for Reflection and Discussion
• Tales of Generosity: Lessons on Gratitude and Compassion

• What is Mindfulness? quotations about mindfulness meditation, informal mindfulness practice, and nonjudgmental awareness.

Yoga and Mindful Movement
Especially if you don't have training or experience teaching yoga or other forms of mindful movement, please try these movements yourself a few times before teaching them to others. 

• Giant Strides: a seated walking practice   

• Jungle Yoga Adventure for Kids  

• My Goal in Heart, Mind, and Body: How Yoga and Mindfulness Can Support Life Goals

• Trying on Different Shapes: mindfulness of mood and posture  

Meditation and Formal Mindfulness Practice
These are appropriate for personal practice or for use by teachers with an established personal practice and preferably some training in teaching mindfulness and meditation.

• Breath-Based Practices for Mindfulness or Stress Reduction
• Body Scan: awareness of the body

• DIY Mini-Retreat for Counselors and Teachers
• Mindful Listening in a Noisy World

• One-Word Labeling : thoughts, emotions, sensations, and urges  
• Tense and Let Go: yoga nidra relaxation practice

Emotions and Thoughts    
These are appropriate for teaching kids. (Please try them yourself first. For meditation or breathing practices, it's preferably if you have your own established personal practice before teaching others.)

• Emotion Improv: an exercise for developing mindfulness of feelings  
• Harnessing the Four Elements: a mindfulness activity for facing challenges  
• Pebble Meditation: a mindfulness activity to cultivate peace
• Self-Compassion and Growth Mindset: Don't Be Afraid of Mistakes
• The Top Three Breathing Exercises for Anxious Kids 

Compassion, Self-Compassion, and Self-Awareness
These are appropriate for adults or mature teens. If you plan to use them in teaching others, please respect participants' decisions about how much they choose to share with the group.

• Building Narratives of Inclusion: Mitigating Implicit and Explicit Bias 

• Compassionate Image: a guided visualization practice  

• I Wish You Peace: a simple lovingkindness meditation 

• Increasing Your Ability to be Present 

• Next Time I'll Do Better: recognizing and learning from mistakes  

• Personal Triggers: recognizing the causes of problematic behavior
• Restless Mind: typical strategies for denying stress 

• The Power of Intention Setting for a Mindful School Year

• 7 Ways Our Thoughts Deceive Us

• Wise Elder Visualization: a practice for parents and teachers      

Links to Resources on Mindfulness


First, do no harm. Seven Ethical Guidelines for Teaching Mindfulness from Dr. Christopher Willard

1,500 Free Mindfulness Exercises from MindfulnessExercises.com

Sign Language Resources on Mindfulness, Meditation, and Yoga 

Mindfulness for Our Children from mindfulness4u.org

Guided Meditations for Young Adults  from the online MSW program at USC

Mindfulness for Children app

Do’s and don’ts when teaching mindfulness, by Deborah Schoeberlein at Huffington Post      

Guided Meditations in English and Spanish from the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center

  

How to teach mindfulness, by Emily Drabble at The Guardian     

Mindfulness and children: 6 lessons for teaching the joy of the moment, by Bill Gerlach at The New Pursuit           

Mindfulness Activities for Children from JoyfulMind.net    

  

Nine Awesome Mindfulness Videos on YouTube, from Mrs. Mindfulness   

  

Self-Guided MBSR Course: Free 8-week online course in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction   

  

Tips for teaching mindfulness to kids  by Meghan Cowan at The Greater Good     

  

Links to Resources on Compassion, Meditation, Social-Emotional Learning, and related topics    

resources for Elementary School Counselors, including mindfulness and social-emotional learning

Sesame Street in Communities has resources for helping young children cope with grief and trauma.

Benefits of Meditation from learnrelaxationtechniques.com

Bullybust.org has film clips about different types of bullying, with discussion questions and teaching guides.   Plus videos of ‘Upstanders’—bystanders who stand up for those who are bullied.

Classroom Lessons on Social-Emotional Learning and sensitively teaching current and controversial issues, from the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility.

  
The Coalition to Support Grieving Students: "The site covers a range of grief-related topics to provide training resources specially designed for school professionals."                     

Fables to Grow On, to promote social and emotional learning, as well as literacy skills    

Five Reasons We Can't Ignore Social-Emotional Learning by Sasha Briggs at InformED

FindaSit.com is a new site where you can search for a meditation group near you

Guided Meditations from Against the Stream: Buddhist Meditation Society

Guided Meditations from Mindfulness and Psychotherapy

Here's What Will Happen to You When Your Body, Mind, and Soul When You Meditate, from BookMeditationRetreats.com

  

Lesson Plans on civil rights, immigration, and discrimination from Teaching Tolerance    

Love Is Respect has resources on healthy relationships vs. dating abuse.

No Stigmas has a directory of mental health resources  and a peer support group.    

  

Online Yoga Resources for Every Body: This is a list I put together of the best advice on teaching yoga to those of us who don't fit the profile of a "typical" yoga student.  (For example, because of a larger body or a disability.)       

  

7 Tips for Positively Managing Student Behavior from Quill.com