Overview:
Students will learn a mindfulness breathing technique called five-finger star breathing. When students learn the technique, the teacher will facilitate a role-playing activity called “How a star is born”. In the last activity, students will create a “Breathing Star” craft to help them with their mindfulness breathing.
NB Curricular Connections
Curriculum Connection:
Explore Your World
- Strand: Well-Being – Big Idea: Physical Health and Active Participation – Skill Descriptor: Analyze personal safety and healthy practices.
- Strand: Well-Being – Big Idea: Emotional Health and Positive Identities – Skill Descriptor:
- Explore activities that foster enjoyment and well-being.
- Recognize that feelings and emotions can impact well-being, relationships, and the way we engage with others.
Personal Wellness 3-5
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- Strand: Wellness – Big Idea: Healthy Lifestyle – Skill Descriptor:
- Grade 3: Analyze personal safety and healthy practices.
- Grade 4: Describe personal safety and healthy practices.
- Grade 5: Assess personal safety and healthy practices.
- Strand: Mental Fitness – Big Idea: Mental Health Strategies – Skill Descriptor:
- Grade 3: Demonstrate self-calming strategies to regulate emotional reactions.
- Grade 4: Identify strategies for regulating emotional reactions.
- Grade 5: Identify strategies for seeking support for self and others.
- Strand: Mental Fitness – Big Idea: Positive Mental Health – Skill Descriptor:
- Grade 3: Explore the importance of talking about emotions and emotional responses.
- Grade 4: Describe the seven primary emotions and their expression.
- Grade 5: Identify ways to manage stress and regulate emotions.
- Strand: Wellness – Big Idea: Healthy Lifestyle – Skill Descriptor:
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What you’ll need:
- File folders (one for each student)
- Scissors
- Marker
- Star pattern
- Flashlight
- K-5 Mindfulness Resource (PDF attached)
Instructions:
Activity 1: Five-finger Star Breathing
Step 1: Tell students to hold up one hand and spread their fingers wide. Ask them to imagine that their hand is a 5- sided star. Say, “We are going to learn five-finger star breathing”. Tell them we will use the finger of the opposite hand to trace along the outside of our thumb and fingers. Instruct students to begin by placing the finger of the opposite hand at the bottom of the thumb and breathe in as you slide up your thumb. Pause at the top of the thumb and begin to breathe out as you slide down your thumb. Next, breathe in as you slide up your second finger and breathe out as you slide down. Keep going until you have finished tracing your five fingers slowly. You are breathing in as you trace up one side of a finger and breathing out as you trace down the other side of the finger.
Step 2: Discuss the experience with students. “Notice how you are feeling? Did you think of anything while doing the star breathing, or were you able to stay mindful and concentrate on breathing and tracing your fingers? Are you calmer than when you started the breathing?”.
Activity 2: How a star is born – role play
Step 1: Begin by asking students if they have ever looked up in the night sky and what they see. Tell students that the stars they see are just like our sun but farther away. When we see the stars in the sky at night, they seem to twinkle because they are very hot, and their light must travel to us from far away.
Step 2: Students will role-play how a star is born. Clear an open space in the classroom or do this activity outside in the schoolyard. Students should spread out to all areas of the space. Have the flashlight close by for step 4.
Step 3: Once students have spread out, start by telling students that they are tiny bits of dust particles and gas floating in space. Tell them to float gently and slowly around the room, being mindful to avoid bumping into classmates. As students float about, call the name of the student standing closest to you and tell them that gravity is pulling you both together. Have the student stand next to you to create ‘a small ball of gas and dust particles’. Continue to float gently, standing side by side as you slowly move closer to another student and call their name to join you. Once again, gravity has pulled another student close to you. Your group, which represents a bigger ball of gas and dust, grows larger. Continue floating around the room and gather up more students in your growing ball of gas and dust until every student has been pulled into the ball.
Step 4: Explain to students how stars form when the heat builds up inside the ball and the pressure increases. Have everyone squish together and tell them that “it is getting hot and the pressure is building”. At the right moment, turn on the flashlight and say, “A star is born!”. Instruct students to go back to their seats, and we will create our star, which we can use to cool down when things get heated, and we need to regulate our breathing.
Activity 3: Make a Breathing Star
Step 1: Students will each get a letter-sized file folder. On the inside corners of the folder, students will write large the word S-T-A-R (one letter in each of the four corners). Next, instruct students to finish writing the phrase, “Stop, take a breath and relax”.
Step 2: Using scissors, make a small snip in the middle of the folder while it is folded. Next, students can draw or trace a star in the very center of the folder. The little cut will be the star’s mouth. Students may need assistance folding back the cardstock so that the mouth opens and closes when they open and close the file folder.
Step 3: Allow them to add personality to their stars by drawing features such as eyes, nose, shoes, buttons, glitter, etc. Tell them they can use this folder when they need a break to help them be mindful and calm. They can practice the breathing exercises they have learned while looking at the star, repeating the phrase “Stop, Take a Breath and Relax,” and breathing as they open and close the folder breathing along with the little star. Practice opening and closing the folder together while breathing in and out.
Web Resources to help explain the five-finger breathing:
- Five Finger Breath
- Star Breathing Mindful Minute
- KIDS MEDITATION – FIVE FINGER BREATHING
- Breathing – S.T.A.R. Folder
Questions Related to The Labour Market And Employment Opportunities In NB:
- What hobbies might people have related to the stars and space? (Astronomy, rocketry, photography, meteorite collecting, constellation gazing)
- What kinds of jobs would be available in New Brunswick that would allow you to work with the stars and space? (Robotics, pyrotechnics, weather forecaster, meteorologist, climatologist, aeronautical engineer, astrophysicist, astronomer)
Reflection Activity
Please see the attached PDF for several choices on how you and your learners can reflect upon today’s activity.
