Grade 2 team inspires wellness in a school community
Grade 2 students at AES in New Delhi leading wellness activities at school.
When grade 2 teacher Kalee Thompson introduced wellness and mindfulness practices to her grade 2 students, she didn’t know she was sparking a movement that would impact the entire school community.
Inspired to share practices like guided breathing and meditation, Kalee’s grade 2 students have created a campaign to support all members of the AES (American Embassy School) community in New Delhi.
“I knew that students had been really disrupted during Covid and they needed more support,” reflects Kalee. “My background is in yoga, meditation and mindfulness and my grade 2 team was on board to introduce everyday mindfulness to our students.”
Kalee introduced practices like mindful walking, breathwork, meditation, mindful listening and movement, and mindful coloring. Her intention was to help students build their own wellness tool boxes and feel a sense of ownership about their own wellness journeys.
“After a few months, the students started leading the sessions,” smiles Kalee, noting that all students have been encouraged to lead using their mother tongue languages first, and English second.
“What happened, and I didn’t anticipate this, was that very quickly students starting creating their own mindfulness practices,” says Kalee. “They created new ways of breathing and moving based on their own interests, and called them things like ‘heart breath’ and ‘crabby movement’.”
Kalee filmed the students leading their practices and then shared links with the school community through the all-school newsletter Tiger Tales. Parents, teachers and community members can watch the videos and use the students’ mindfulness practices.
“It’s all invitational and no one has to participate,” explains Kalee. “When we’re doing this at school, students always have the option to simply close their eyes and take a few breaths, or focus on something as they look at it. We want this to be a grounding activity for everyone.”
Kalee has received a lot of positive feedback from AES parents, and some parents have shared that their whole families have now started doing mindfulness exercises together.
The students have led a kindness meditation to launch an all-school kindness assembly, and are now involved in leading a breathing activity at the beginning of each school gathering.
“I can see students using mindful techniques around campus now,” says Kalee. “I’ve observed students using roller coaster breathing during MAP testing, and I saw one student using heart breath in the cafeteria when it was really loud; she said it helped her feel more calm.”
Kalee has worked with Inspire Citizens co-founder Aaron Moniz during the process of ideating and planning her work with grade 2 students, as well as during an after-school yoga series that Kalee called ‘Yoga for a Happy Heart’ and a pop-up Zen Den for the whole school. As Kalee is switching roles next year, she just met with Aaron to ideate ways of continuing to deepen wellness initiatives at AES.
“My role is evolving and next year, I will be one of our elementary school counselors. I am keen to take mindfulness to our entire school community and the next step for me is whole school wellness,” says Kalee. “I am very interested in supporting our entire school community (teachers, teaching assistants, parents, and other non-teaching staff) by continuing to foster a culture of wellness. A school with a wellness focus is a joyful place for all to be, play and learn. This can be accomplished one intentional breath at a time.”
Kalee is very interested in whole school wellness and, to that end, she is publishing a mindful workbook for teacher wellness. She’s committed to personal and collective wellness and has created a wonderful example of engaging students in this vital work.
Below: Students demonstrating meditation and breathing strategies they designed based on personal interests, and a video showing students leading a breath meditation in a variety of mother tongue languages.
