Elementary (Grades 3-5)

Middle School (6-8)

• Have chart paper and markers.

• Have copies of individual numbered paragraphs from the handout What is Meditation? so that each student in a numbered group gets a copy of the group’s paragraph. (Example: In a class of 28 students, there will be seven groups of four students per group. Therefore, you will need four copies of paragraph 1, four copies of paragraph 2, etc.)

• Have copies of the complete handout What is Meditation?, one for each student.

CASEL Core Competencies

• Self-Awareness

• Self-Management

• Social Awareness

• Relationship Skills

• Responsible Decision Making

Common Core ELA-Literacy Standards

• Reading Informational Text

• Speaking and Listening

NCSS Social Studies Themes

• Culture

• Individuals, Groups and Institutions

• Define meditation and mantra

• Identify reasons people meditate

• Identify different religious faiths and spiritual practices that use meditation

• Explain how people use different types of meditation

• Understand the role meditation plays in some people’s lives

• Meditation

• Mantra

Day 1

Ask the class by a show of hands: How many people know someone who meditates? Ask: How many people are sure they know something about meditation?

Divide the class into seven small groups numbered 1 through 7. Tell the class that each group is going to get a paragraph about meditation to read and report to the class.

Read the first paragraph, which is not numbered, and model what students will do.

It is difficult to define what meditation is because some forms of meditation remain part of spiritual or religious practice while other forms of meditation have borrowed ideas and techniques from the original spiritual practices but are no longer directly connected to them.

Title chart paper: Meditation

Bullet items:

• Many forms of meditation

• Some are religious or spiritual

• Some have borrowed ideas and techniques but are now non-religious

Give the members of each group a copy of the group’s paragraph. Give each group a piece of chart paper and markers.

Tell the class they have five minutes to read their paragraph. When everyone in the group has finished reading, the group must decide on the title of their paragraph and then bullet the important information they want to share with the class. Tell students they have 10 minutes to complete their chart.

Move from group to group to provide assistance as needed and to monitor student progress. Give students extra time to complete the task if needed. Tell students they must decide which student or students will report to the class. Tell students each group will have two or three minutes to make their report to the class.

When all groups have completed their charts, ask group 1 to post its chart and review it with the class as a whole. Repeat until all seven groups have shared. As each group reports, you may wish to supplement their reports by showing pictures or playing audio or video recordings of the practices described, which can be found at your library or on the internet.

Day 2

It is likely that not all groups will have shared their reports on day 1. Complete the exercise so that all seven groups have posted their charts and spoken to the class.

Distribute the entire reading to all students.

Ask : Based on what we have learned, how would you define meditation? How is it similar to prayer and how is it different? How would you define mantra?

Ask students to look at # 3 again.

Read aloud: The most famous mantra is the Compassionate Buddha “Om Mani Padme Hum” which translates to “Hail to the jewel in the lotus.” In Buddhist teaching, the jewel is compassion. Compassion is sympathy and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. When a person has compassion, the person empathizes with someone who is suffering and feels obligated to act to reduce the person’s suffering.

Ask: Why do you think the most famous mantra focuses on compassion?

Tell students to look at all the different religious faiths that use prayer beads. Ask: Why do you think so many different religious faiths repeat prayers? Why do they use beads? What do you think repeating the prayers does for the person who is using the beads?

Depending on your level of familiarity with different mediation practices, lead the class through one secular practice mentioned in #5-7, or you may choose to use an audio tape or video from the internet to do so.

After leading the class through one or two practices, ask: How did doing this meditation practice make you feel physically? How would you describe how you feel in terms of stress or tension?