What: Breaks outdoors can serve an important role in helping students release or gain energy as well as helping relieve stress after intense work periods. If a class is very lethargic or unmotivated during the morning or during a certain subject, add in a 10-minute walk around the building to get fresh air and invigorate students or take students outside for a guided energy break. If students have completed a taxing academic task or a long assessment, allow them to relieve some stress by taking them outside for an emotional break involving a guided mediation or movement exercise.
Guiding these breaks will make them more effective for students. Letting children run around freely might seem like a great way to relieve stress or extra energy but can often discombobulate students, make them less focused and create opportunities for conflict. Guiding students through meditation, centering and breathing exercises, or guided movement exercises will help students release, relax and center their bodies more effectively. Holding circle time outdoors and reading nature stories or poems, or singing nature songs, can also help students relax and focus some attention on the calming effects of nature.
How: Deliberate planning is essential to making these breaks effective. See below for some considerations.
| Energy Breaks | Emotional Breaks |
Do my students need to relieve energy?
Do my students need to get energized?
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Do my students need to relieve stress?
Do my students need to let go after a period of extreme focus?
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How much time do I have?
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Resources for Mindfulness and Movement:
Go Noodle has a lot of excellent guided mindfulness activities. While these are presented on a screen in the classroom, they can give teachers ideas of how to lead mindfulness or relaxation exercises on their own.
- Guided mediation scripts for children: https://www.greenchildmagazine.com/free-meditation- guided-relaxation-scripts-kids/, https://kindredmeditations.com/
- Movement with kids resources: https://www.actionforhealthykids.org/activity/classroom- physical-activity-breaks/
- Great resources with lots of movement activities for kids: https://wvde.state.wv.us/healthyschools/documents/resource_guide_interactiveFinal.pdf
- There are many free meditation and movement resources/ideas online, just a few clicks away. You could even look one up on your phone and read it from there, no printing required.
When: Plan to do an outdoor energy break when students are in a slump, are unmotivated or are overly energized and unfocused. Incorporate an outdoor emotional break after intense periods of focused work or after stressful assessments. Another idea is to guide students through a 2-3 minute guided mediation outside just after lunch/recess every day. This is not only an easy way to add outdoor minutes, since students are already dressed (or have their gear) and are near an exit to the outdoors, but it also prepares students bodies for a calmer, more focused afternoon.
Who: Any teacher, classroom/specials/academic specialists and teacher aids can utilize these energy and emotional breaks to help students get their bodies into the best place for learning. Administration can support this by providing teachers with resources and ideas (there are many resource guides for meditation, mindfulness and active movement with kids). Administration can teach some easy guided meditations at school assemblies and meetings giving teachers and students practice.
Materials: No materials are needed but a guided mediation script or guided movement activity can be helpful to making these breaks effective.
Why: A deliberately planned, effective outdoor energy or emotional break can work wonders. These breaks can bring a class back to focus or help students relieve stress. Doing these breaks outdoors make them much more effective than indoors as breathing fresh air, feeling the wind blow on cheeks and feeling the elements are centering and focusing for students. These breaks take very little time, create students who are more ready for academic work, and also increase minutes outdoors.
Consider: Share movement and mindfulness ideas with colleagues. Create a Google Doc or school Google Classroom page to share ideas.
Barriers addressed: Control over curriculum; Scheduling; Time Pressure