A few days ago, I posted about stress among children and in school. If you missed it, you can find it here.
I wanted to add an activity to help children relax, but at the time, I didn't have any clever ideas...until now. Last night, I lay awake most of the night trying to think of an activity that might actually work and couldn't wait to try it with my own children this morning, but I believe that if a teacher were to do this particular activity with students and reminded them to repeat this activity before bed each night, they may actually fall asleep faster and wake up more relaxed.
It would be a bargain if it worked for the teacher too.
What makes this activity extra interesting, is the connection that it has, not only to health, but to SCIENCE and BIOLOGY. Another great thing is that it can be used for any age.
So how does it work?
Have students lie on floor or excercise mats. For each of the following, have them tense to a count of 5 and relax to a count of 10.
- Squeeze your eyes shut tightly.
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- Press your lips together tightly.
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- Press your tongue to the roof of your mouth.
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- Pull your shoulders up to your ears.
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- Make a fist as tight as you can with both hands.
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- Make a fist with only one hand. Notice the difference between hands.
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- Pull your stomach way in.
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- Push your knees together hard.
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- Flex your feet: Pull your toes way up toward your knees without moving your legs.
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- Point your toes.
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- Tighten your leg muscles.
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- Now tighten every muscle in your body.
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...My wife wasn't very happy with me last night when I tried all of this in bed though, but I'm happy to say that this activity will help students to be able to point out the major muscle groups using an appropriate chart labeled to fit different ages. I was also able to identify which muscles contracted and relaxed. It was quite obvious how each muscle responded to stress. My kids were very surprised to see how great they felt afterwards. My daughter, aged 6 is a busy body and she even did it twice.
Let me know how it went!
Great post. Also, MEDITATION should be taught in schools. The younger we learn that the "voice in our head" is NOT us, the better we deal with problems in life.
Very true. Thanks for reading!
You have written a great post.
It is a very important issue to promote and show the correct and frequent exercises from early ages.
Greetings, very good job.
Thanks for dropping byThanks @th2017. Much appreciated.
It has been a pleasure to visit your post.
Happy weekend.
Exercises is an essential ingredients our bodies needed to keep on going in life. Your pictures on various exercing positions are maverlous. I follow you.
Great idea, will have to try this with my munchkins!
I need also some of these exercises