Mindful Greetings
Objective
Begin building authentic connections with students.
Foster authentic community connections between students and others in their communities with mindful greetings.
Foster authentic community connections between students and others in their communities with mindful greetings.
SEL Competencies
Emotion Regulation, Positive Mindset, Social Awareness
Benefits
Encouraging students to pause, notice, and greet other students and school community members in a positive, cheerful, kind way helps build the foundation for authentic community connections.
Core Concept
Choosing to mindfully greet others is a simple, kind way to make them feel special.
Student Extension
- Tell students “a mindful greeting is a simple, kind way to make someone feel welcome or special, which is what Mindful Littles calls “uplifting”.
- Ask students to write about a time when someone greeted them mindfully.
- Either pair up students or allow them to choose a partner to brainstorm their own mindful greetings.
Explain to students that they will create a Mindful Greeting for several scenarios. Invite them to imagine themselves as the characters in the scenarios and think about how they would want to be greeted. - Give students the challenge to engage in service by saying, “Mindful Greetings are one of the simplest ways to practice uplifting those around you. Look out at home, school, or in your community for a scenario like one of these and practice uplifting someone with a mindful greeting.”
- Ask students to reflect on service by writing a paragraph about a time they use a mindful greeting to uplift someone.
Optional Reflection
Write a short paragraph about a time you used a mindful greeting to uplift someone. What did you do? How did you feel afterwards? How do you think they felt? What did you learn about the positive impact mindful greetings have on connections with others?