A few days ago, I posted about stress among children and in school. If you missed it, you can find it here.
I wanted to add an activity to help children relax, but at the time, I didn't have any clever ideas...until now. Last night, I lay awake most of the night trying to think of an activity that might actually work and couldn't wait to try it with my own children this morning, but I believe that if a teacher were to do this particular activity with students and reminded them to repeat this activity before bed each night, they may actually fall asleep faster and wake up more relaxed.
It would be a bargain if it worked for the teacher too.
What makes this activity extra interesting, is the connection that it has, not only to health, but to SCIENCE and BIOLOGY. Another great thing is that it can be used for any age.
So how does it work?
Have students lie on floor or excercise mats. For each of the following, have them tense to a count of 5 and relax to a count of 10.
- Squeeze your eyes shut tightly.
Image source - Press your lips together tightly.
Image source - Press your tongue to the roof of your mouth.
Image source - Pull your shoulders up to your ears.
Image source - Make a fist as tight as you can with both hands.
Image source - Make a fist with only one hand. Notice the difference between hands.
Image source - Pull your stomach way in.
Image source - Push your knees together hard.
Image source - Flex your feet: Pull your toes way up toward your knees without moving your legs.
Image source - Point your toes.
Image source - Tighten your leg muscles.
Image source - Now tighten every muscle in your body.
Image source
...My wife wasn't very happy with me last night when I tried all of this in bed though, but I'm happy to say that this activity will help students to be able to point out the major muscle groups using an appropriate chart labeled to fit different ages. I was also able to identify which muscles contracted and relaxed. It was quite obvious how each muscle responded to stress. My kids were very surprised to see how great they felt afterwards. My daughter, aged 6 is a busy body and she even did it twice.