by Janine Bloomfield, Ph.D.

This fall I have been at West Mercer Elementary on Mercer Island, Washington teaching mindfulness to 3rd, 4th and 5th graders.  It has been a wonderful experience with a lot of learning taking place on the part of students, classroom teachers, and myself. Feedback from students is that they are using mindfulness to help focus on homework, calming down when dealing with annoying siblings or parents, and just enjoying everyday parts of life a bit more.   Mindful hand washing has been particularly popular in some 3rd grade classrooms with some kids finding it a quite relaxing activity (with the side benefit of particularly clean hands!).  Taking the time to really feel the softness of the soap on the skin or hear the sound of the water  – one child compared it to the sound of a waterfall – can turn a sometimes boring and usually routine act into something like a work of art.