Be Present with a Mindfulness Bell

What You Need:

• A chime, triangle, vibratone, singing bowl, or a rin gong (small Japanese bell)
• Mindfulness Bell: Reflection Questions worksheet

What You Do:

1. Ask your students what it means to "be present" and why that's important. How do they know they're present, and what do they do to be present or pay attention?
2. After discussing for a few minutes, share that today together you will use a special bell to help bring you both into the present and this will support paying attention.
3. Before sounding the bell, share that the sound of the bell is an invitation to breathe deeply and pay attention to your breathing.
4. Take your bell and breathe deeply two times .
5. Gently ring the bell, and with your students, take one mindful breath in and out. Allow for three full in-and-out breaths between each full sound of the bell. You can ring the bell once, twice, or even three times, each time taking three deep breaths.
6. Check in with your students and ask them how that felt .
7. Now, with your students, use the sound of the bell to help them get in touch with their center, a place where they feel safe and secure.
8. Discuss when you may use the bell and make a commitment to practice breathing together to get present daily.
9. Have your students complete the worksheet.

Meena Srinivasan, MA, National Board Certified Teacher, is a leader in the fields of Mindful Awareness Practices (MAP) and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). She is the author of Teach, Breathe, Learn: Mindfulness In and Out of the Classroom (Parallax Press, 2014) and SEL Everyday: Integrating Social and Emotional Learning With Instruction in Secondary Classrooms (Norton, 2019).