We Need Pollinators–Lessons & More!
Who doesn’t love spotting butterflies?! But we NEED butterflies and other pollinators, and their habitat is decreasing. But we can help! Find out how by downloading the Pollinator Lesson Pack for FREE!
Launching #99Parks!
How much of Iowa have you really seen? The Iowa Department of Tourism is challenging Iowa families to visit 99 Iowa Counties & 99 Iowa Parks! Download the checklist and take the challenge!
Chalk Art
Watch your kids’ faces light up as they reveal their first horizon line–priceless! Chalk Mountains is a unique way to create a design and experiment with color. It helps with focus and flow. #aSTEaMactivity
Bright Spots
What requires no preparation, gets kids moving and giggling, and inspires a discussion of the power of listening and focus? Why, STOP WALK WIGGLE SIT of course!
FUN!!! With Kids & Worms
Everything you’ve always wanted to know about worms, and more! Create your own worm composting bin. Learn about the important jobs worms do for us. Talk about garbage!
Last Stop on Market Street
Use this award-winning picture book to help young kids talk about the serious issues we face in our communities. “Sometimes when you’re surrounded by dirt, CJ, you’re a better witness for what is beautiful.”
Teacher Perspectives|Settle Down
“Breathing exercises get them back on track,” she says. She decided to try teaching her students controlled breathing techniques and now uses a breathing exercise for a few minutes after recess each day.
Teacher Perspectives|Take a Break
“I have 25 kiddos. I just feel like, as a teacher, I have to help all of them – including that one child whose struggles with focus or emotional regulation result in classroom behaviors. When they are stressed, their behaviors can escalate quickly.”
Glitter Jar
Glitter is not my favorite. I try to keep it out of our home, but it’s getting more difficult. Not only do my kids bring it home on art projects, but I didn’t realize how glittery it would be to have a daughter! Glitter on shoes, shirts, pants, backpacks, notebooks, and toys. Glitter that finds its way into every corner of every room of our house. I can count on glitter in the dustpan when I sweep the floors.
As much as I complain about glitter, I do appreciate Glitter Jars. They are simple to make – add water and food coloring to an upcycled water bottle. Add glitter and shake. Glitter swirls around in every direction, like a sparkly, colorful snow globe, it’s mesmerizing.
Sometimes my mind feels like that snow globe–thoughts dart in every direction. To-do lists, work requests, full mail boxes, and I do mean plural with voicemails, emails and paper mail. Family commitments on top of it all make me forget why I walked into a room, and wonder what I meant with a calendar entry.
From well-intentioned extra-curricular activities to technology distractions, I know kids feel it too. When I’m teaching, I wonder why I need to repeat directions times or explain concepts yet again. But then I remember that their young minds are distracted just like mine. And they’ve learned fewer tools to cope.
Life doesn’t have to be so jumbled up. Though swirling glitter is fun to watch, it eventually settles. Just so, as I sit mesmerized by the Glitter Jar, my mind focuses and my thoughts slow.
The education team at Next Step is developing a variety of Mindfulness & Movement resources for educators. In the next month we’ll roll out–
- A collection of cards outlining 5-minute activities to help kids in classrooms and at home focus their thoughts and balance their emotions.
- We’ll offer workshops and coaching to help you integrate these and other strategies into your classroom or family life.
- And we have a trained team that’s ready to bring Mindfulness and Movement to the kids you work with, in or out of school. Urbandale’s Adventuretime program is the first to schedule this program.
Like the Glitter Jar that settles with just a few minutes of stillness, some mindful moments can turn an overwhelming classroom or household into a refuge of calm. Sometimes a small change is all we need to make for a big impact.
New Year Priority
Time and again I’ve started a New Year’s Resolution and by the end of January my enthusiasm to keep the resolution has all but fizzled out. Maybe some of you have experienced this tiresome cycle.
This year I’m trying to combat the cycle by hitching my resolution to my yoga practice. Since I do yoga as often as I can, I figured this would help me in carry out my new priority.
First, you need to know a few things about me. I like to accomplish tasks quickly and efficiently at the expense of neatness and 
tidiness. Picture a closet gushing with scarves, slippers and hats, or finding a lotion bottle with the cleaning supplies. This of course is not the way to a clean and tidy house, and in the end will probably cost me more time in the hunt than it would to put the item away properly.
Like the items exploding from the closet, this is a part of my mind I don’t want to face. Taking time to intentionally put things where they need to go (clothes in the dresser not on the floor!) means a complete rewiring of my brain. This, my friends, is where yoga comes into the picture.
One essential part of yoga is connecting the mind with every movement. When I am practicing I make thoughtful and intentional choices in each position that suit my body. Taking the extra moment to connect mind to body is what makes my yoga practice so beneficial.
One day I realized this intentional mind set is what I was lacking at home. Since then I’ve started taking some extra time to connect my intentions of a clean house to my actions. This means I’ve started to place things in their designated spots instead of leaving them in random places. I still have moments of relapse but every time I go back to yoga I reconnect with my priority.
It has not been easy but I have seen growth in myself and have gained the extra time spent cleaning when I go to find something and it’s in the right spot!