Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Tune In: Watch the episode

15 minutes

Find Out: Mindfulness in nature

25 minutes

Take Action: Stories of bravery

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning Intentions

Students will:

understand why we might use mindfulness practices
recognise strategies for being present and reducing anxiety.

Success Criteria

Students can:

practise and demonstrate mindfulness activities
identify the structure of an episode of Bluey
write or draw storyboards for their own imaginative text.

Find Out: Watch the episode

Step 1

Share the Bluey episode Movies with your students.

Bluey 'Movies' (clickv.ie/w/dXI0)

Movies synopsis: It is Bluey’s first trip to the cinema, but she’s worried that the movie will be too scary. When Bingo starts running amok in the theatre, Bluey must conquer her fear and help Dad out.

Step 2

Engage students in a class discussion about what they observed in the episode. In particular, focus on the following points:

I wonder how Bluey felt at the start of the movie.
I wonder how Bluey felt during the thunderstorm at the end of the movie.
I wonder how Bluey felt being the only one of her friends not to see a movie yet.
I wonder if Bluey learned anything. Why do you think that?

Step 3

You can then use a 'Change in Thinking' routine to help students identify times in their lives when they have felt anxious or worried during school, and how they overcame those fears.

To help you explain this activity, you could share the following table with students:

The problem was...

The solution was...

Now I start by thinking...

Begin by modelling the thinking routine, either using e a personal example or the following script.

The problem was that I felt anxious about talking in front of the class at show and tell, worrying that the other students would laugh at me.
The solution was to have a swim in the river when I got home; this helped take my mind off my worries.
Now, when I feel a bit worried, I focus on doing something calming or distracting to ease my nerves.

Have students take turns practising the routine, encouraging them to deeply reflect on their own metacognitive thinking and efforts to create positive change. Acknowledge and celebrate moments when they successfully demonstrate effective self-management strategies.

Find Out: Mindfulness in nature

Step 1

Lead students to an outdoor area, preferably on some comfortable grass under some trees and explain that we they going to practise mindfulness.

Once settled, invite students to place their hands on their tummy. Read aloud the following script (a guided mindfulness exercise):

'Take a few normal breaths… Can you see your hand moving as you breathe?
Focus on your hand. See if you can take some deeper breaths and watch it move up and down.
Now take a few deeper breaths… As you breathe slowly and deeply you might see your hand is looking calmer and more relaxed… How do you feel? How many breaths does it take to make you feel calmer and more relaxed?
How many times in a row can you make your hand go up and down?
Can you breathe in right down to the bottom of your tummy?
Now go back to breathing normally.
Remember you can breathe with your hand on your tummy any time you want to calm down and focus for a moment.'

Step 2

Once complete, remind students of the episode you watched earlier and how Bluey was focused on the thunderstorm at the end of the movie, rather than what was happening right now. How did this make her feel?

Suggest to students that it's not unhelpful to worry about the future because we can't predict what's going to happen then and the things we think might happen, may not happen. Instead, it's better to focus on what is happening right now. That is why, when we're worried or upset, it's best to go for a walk, listen to the world around us, and focus on breathing in and out - these activities help draw our attention to where we are right now.

Displaying the Zones of Emotional Regulation chart is helpful for students to visualise their feelings and lead them to build their emotional vocabulary, shifting them away from rote responses like 'good' to more nuanced responses like 'curious', 'excited', or 'worried'.

Find out more about teaching emotional intelligence here.

Step 3

Pose the following:

I wonder if you can think of something that has worried them, now or in the past. Remember the examples you discussed back in the classroom.

Ask students to imagine they can take that worry and make it into a leaf. Perhaps they let the wind sweep in and lift up the leaf and blow it away, or maybe they place the leaf in a river. Either way, they watch that worry taken away from them.

Take Actions: Stories of bravery

Step 1

Return to the classroom.

Once settled remind students again of the 'Change in Thinking' routine. Explain to students that stories often begin with a problem, which the characters battle through in the middle, and then find a solution at the end.

Work with students to map the episode you watched earlier to the 'Change in Thinking' routine, recording your ideas on the board. Use the following questions to guide you:

How did Bluey feel at the start of the episode? What was her problem?
What did Bluey figure out in the middle of the episode?
How had Bluey changed by the end of the episode? What could she do differently?

Step 2

Invite student volunteers to suggest a time in their lives when they were brave and overcame a problem.

Work as a class to map a few of these examples using the 'Change in Thinking' routine.

Step 3

Students will now write a synopsis and draw an image of a time when they were brave.

Older students could create 3 separate pages of work one for each of the three acts, to show the pivotal moments of conflict and change in the story. Remind them of the 'Change in Thinking' thinking routine as a way to map the story arc.

Younger students could create just one scene from their example.

Step 4

Invite some students to share their stories by reading them in front of the class, either in full or as a summary.

Reflection

Engage students in a class discussion around the following questions:

I wonder if you enjoyed the mindfulness activity (sitting in nature).
I wonder if there are other mindful activities that you know about and like doing (e.g. box-breathing or using your senses to notice the world around you).
Did you enjoy the mindfulness activity? Did you find it useful? When might you use it again?

By slowing down and paying attention to what they’re experiencing in the present moment - including feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations - students develop self-management techniques for calming themselves, removing themselves from painful stimuli, and addressing the source of pain.

Mindfulness - Mindful Reflections

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