Mindful Arts in the Classroom: Stories and Creative Activities for Social and Emotional Learning

Description

Written especially for the teacher or camp director who wants to bring mindfulness, social and emotional learning (SEL), and the arts into their busy day through storytelling and fun games, this book offers a complete course that helps kids identify and talk about their feelings, self-regulate and self-soothe when stressed, and learn from easy mindfulness practices. Educator and theater director Andrew Nance is the author of the popular children's book Puppy Mind, which brought a new dimension of cuteness to the practice of mindfulness in the form of a rambunctious, playful puppy. In this book, Nance brings the puppy and a host of other friendly characters into the classroom to animate a 21-lesson curriculum centered around lively stories and easy-to-lead exercises for young students from kindergarten to third grade. Nance offers a teacher's guide to arts-based mindfulness exercises utilizing story-telling, theater games, and drawing to spark students' self-expression, self-awareness, and social and emotional well-being.

Andrew Jordan Nance has been an educator for more than twenty-five years. He is the founder of Mindful Arts San Francisco, whose mission is to provide volunteer mindful educators to teach at underserved San Francisco schools. Nance is also an award-winning actor and director. For almost thirty years he taught performing arts to students from diverse backgrounds, and for eighteen years he was the Conservatory Director at San Francisco's New Conservatory Theatre Center. He is on the board of directors of several educational nonprofit organizations including the Mindful Life Project in Richmond, California; San Francisco's New Conservatory Theater Center; and Arts Ed Matters, a California-based arts-integration organization. Andrew Jordan Nance lives in San Francisco.

"A treasury of creative advice, games, practices, stories, and scripts from one of my favorite and fun mindfulness teachers working today. I don't know whether you'll have more fun teaching or the kids will have more fun practicing!" -Chris Willard, PsyD, author of Growing Up Mindful and Raising Resilience "As an elementary school principal, I've noticed how many students struggle to simply take a deep breath. There is nothing more important than recognizing and being able to name how we are feeling, and the stories in this book teach students this art. "Through the humor and joy of storytelling, students learn to name their feelings and notice their surroundings. Our teachers love it as much as our students and we continue to see kids more in tune with their feelings and better able to self-regulate." -Jeremy Hilinski, principal of Bret Harte Elementary, Bayview District, San Francisco "Using games, poetry, body movement, and other learning portals, Nance offers ways to engage young learners in practices designed to teach them to become aware of their emotional state in order to make good choices about how to respond to the world around them. With step-by-step instructions for teachers, he provides a scientific basis for introducing young students to mindful practices." -Michele Lilyanna, author of Awakening Joy for Kids "Andrew's inspired and engaging curriculum helps make mindfulness concepts and practices accessible for children.... This experiential, kid-friendly approach is sure to help plant the seeds of the beneficial life skills of mindfulness." -Christina Costelo, program manager at Mindful Schools "This curriculum teaches skills that will save children's lives." -Stacey Gonzalez, transitional kindergarten classroom teacher, San Francisco "Andrew is one of the key leaders in bringing mindfulness to students in innovative, creative, and engaging ways. He displays his pioneering spirit once again in this phenomenal book." -from the foreword by J. G. Larochette, founder and executive director of the Mindful Life Project, Richmond, California