Open Circle Letter 3

Dear Family:

In several recent Open Circle lessons, we talked about what it feels like to be calm and how to get calm when we are upset. When we are being calm, we are also breathing slowly and calmly. Sometimes at school and at other places, it is important to get calm when we are feeling upset, anxious, too excited, or not listening or behaving well. We learned two calm breathing exercises to help us get calm. 

One is called calm breathing:

• Breathe in slowly and deeply, filling your belly with air like a balloon.

• Breathe out slowly.

A second calm breathing exercise is called flower breathing*:

• Breathe in through your nose, imagining the fragrance of a sweet-smelling flower.

• Breathe out with an “ahhh” sound.

Each person has his/her own way of calming down. However, when strong feelings and signals in our body tell us that we’re losing control, the first thing to do is to stop and take some calm breaths.

Ask your child to teach you the two calm breathing techniques he/she learned in school. Practice them together. Share with your child some times when you might want to use one of the calm breathing techniques. Talk about times he/she might want to use them to calm down. Make a habit of using calm breathing yourself, and encourage your child to use one of the exercises whenever he/she needs to calm down.

Yours truly,

 Nicole & Lynne 

Literature Connections

Here are some books that relate to the topics we discussed in Open Circle. You might want to check out one or two at the library and read with your child:

Bang, Molly. When Sophie Gets Angry, Really, Really Angry. Blue Sky Press, 1999.
When Sophie and her sister argue, Sophie gets so angry that she feels like a volcano that is about to explode. She runs, she cries, and then she tries to calm down by going to places that soothe her.

MacLean, Kerry Lee. Peaceful Piggy Meditation. Albert Whitman, 2004.
Humorous pig characters demonstrate how important it is to use calm breathing in order to think clearly during stressful situations.