Little Gurus: Kindergarten’s Practice of Mindfulness

Author: Madeline Burgin

It started on a Monday afternoon, just like any other, when I found myself surrounded by a small army of 5- and 6-year-olds, screeching and boisterous. They waved their flags high, and by flags, I mean their dance scarves that echoed their endlessly frenetic energy. We were pretending to paint the shapes we saw in a virtual art gallery that I had just shared with them. When asked, the students would yell out the shapes and colors they saw in the photo. They are always enthusiastic to answer the questions and I always tried to meet them where they are. 

For the first few weeks of the semester (and in ArtistCorps), I only worked with Pre-K students, who are vastly different from my kindergartners. Where Pre-K-ers try their hardest to do what you ask of them, kindergartners aim to test every boundary. This was a tremendous adjustment but as much as I tried to teach them, they taught me more. 

The first lesson they have taught me is that kindergartners have endless energy. They are a millimeter away from bouncing off the walls. Physically, their bodies will tell you when they are ready to move on if you just pay attention. They listen to their bodies and so should we. My fellow ArtistCorps members and I watch the children during the many activities and then nonverbally communicate when we need to move on or do another verse of “Baby Acorn”. 

The second lesson goes hand-in-hand with the first: kindergartners practice mindfulness but their moments of mindfulness are kindergartner-sized. We have their attention for about 5-6 minutes at best. Therefore, we create many activities that involve different parts of the body so that they stay engaged and we can switch to the next. Once they start wiggling, we need to refocus them on something new.

The last lesson the kindergartners have taught me is that Murphy’s Law is very real. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong in a Kindergarten class. For example, if you lead an activity where you talk about different body parts, you will have at least one kid yell out some more… private parts. The key is to adapt. I have learned to embrace the inevitability of Murphy’s Law in a kindergarten classroom and to adapt the activities to the children. 

All of these lessons naturally take root in a mindfulness practice and even help my own practice. I never expected a class of 5- and 6- year-olds to change my life but they have. They have taught me how to stay in the moment and just be present with them and myself.