Hedgy's Guide to Blog

How to Teach Super Power STOP

This video compliments Hedgy's Guide to Calm PDF or EPUB book and Hedgy's Guide to Teaching Hedgy's Guide to Calm PDF (found on www.supercalmhedgy.com). 

Please take the Hedgy's Guide to Calm 21 Day Challenge yourself! The 21 days will help you to become familiar with how to use the Super Powers to Becoming a Super-Calm YOU before adding them to your classroom's daily rhythm and routine AND will provide YOU with the tools and skills to help calm YOURSELF down. 

Calm teacher + Calm Students = A calm and productive learning environment 

Before teaching the individual Super Powers, I would highly recommend you introduce Hedgy (your lovable and trustworthy guide) and 'Hedgy's Calm Action Song'. The MP3 with the first five Super Powers is found at www.supercalmhedgy.com along with Hedgy's Calm Action Cards (Hedgy performing each action that goes with the song). 

Sing and move with Hedgy's Calm Action Song all day long and then slowly introduce each Super Power separately. (Use the MP3 with VISUALIZE. once you are ready to introduce Super Power VISUALIZE to your students.) Hedgy (and I) will guide you through how to teach and use each of the Super Powers to Becoming a Super Calm YOU! beginning with Super Power 1) STOP. STOP. is a very powerful Super Power. It is also challenging because it is difficult to actually stop - freeze. Like the other 5 Super Powers, STOP. will need to be practiced. 

TAKE - YOUR - TIME 

The Super Powers to Becoming a Super-Calm YOU are a WHOLE life skills and it is beneficial for them to be learned over an extended period of time for a better understanding and to allow "new behaviors to become automatic and enacted with minimum conscious awareness because the repetitive behavioral patterns are literally etched into our neural pathways.” - Psychology Today 

I recommend that you begin to teach STOP. through games - FREEZE (while being quiet) games. 

Rhythm FREEZE Game: 

Children love to play FREEZE games. You can clap your hands, tap a desk with a pencil, use a drum to play a steady beat and then STOP. (FREEZE!). Speed up the rhythm or slow it down. Encourage students to use different movements (march, walk, jump, skip, gallop, dance, spin, run, tiptoe, crawl, roll...) STOP. for different periods of time and encourage your students to FREEZE without making a sound. When the game is done, have them quietly move to where you'd like them to be and end having them FREEZE. Music FREEZE Game: Play different songs and pause the music a different times for different periods of time. Encourage them to use different movements (see above) and FREEZE at different levels (up high or down on the ground). 

Great songs for FREEZE Games: 

Greg and Steve 'Kids in Motion' Album 

* The Freeze https://youtu.be/_cPyX68uH3I 

* Animal Action I and Animal Action II (press stop between each of the animals to encourage the students to freeze and have to listen what animal will be next). These songs can be used for movement and drawing activities. https://youtu.be/4aVO_31rNQwhttps://youtu.be/Luz-0XXMh8c 

Greg and Steve 'Kids in Action' 

* Bop 'Til You Drop I LOVE this movement song! Students LOVE this movement song! You can pause the song for different periods of time when the students are asked to "drop". I encourage the students to do the movements without saying anything so they can listen to what is going to come next. https://youtu.be/eLREpdZGyho 

* Can You Leap Like a Frog? (press stop between each of the animals to encourage the students to freeze and have to listen what animal will be next). These songs can be used for movement and drawing activities. https://youtu.be/D0nVofTPkro 

Greg and Steve 'Big Fun' 

* The New Zoo Review (press stop between each of the animals to encourage the students to freeze and have to listen what animal will be next). These songs can be used for movement and drawing activities. 

https://youtu.be/D5iLGhD6fjs 

* The Movement Medley You can pause the song for different periods of time between each movement. I encourage the students to do the movements without saying anything so they can listen to what is going to come next. https://youtu.be/5cKPrE0gdYk (Not a fan of this video, but you can play the song.) 

Quiet Time 

* Take the time throughout the day have your students STOP. and just do nothing to allow them to be comfortable in their body while it isn't moving. You can put on calm music, recorded stories, or meditations. This is a good time to encourage them to then begin to scan their bodies and begin to prepare them for learning the next two Super Powers: LOOK. and LISTEN. 

***REMEMBER it is good and important for your students to see YOU STOP. throughout the day.*** 

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How to teach super power stop