by

ii

Copyright © Larisa Ward-Seitz 2023. All Rights Reserved

iii

movements, has also been shown to increase cognitive functioning in young children, especially

in regards to executive functioning (Zeng, Ayyub, Sun, Wen, Xiang, & Gao, 2017).

This qualitative study was conducted with three classes of the first year of a new program for TK

classroom students, who in this research, participated in a sequence of mindfulness and yoga

activities over three weeks. Students reflected on their experiences in post-exercise drawings and

focus groups. The classroom teachers also participated in interviews. The major findings

identified that many students felt readier to learn and calmer after and during the mindfulness,

movement, and drawing exercises. To exemplify this, students rate themselves as more calm on

average through lower numbers on a scale of 1-5. More students drew themselves as being

rainbow or “ready to go” after the activities. Students also found that after participating they had

iv

in mindfulness and movement activities, children can learn to recognize and regulate their

v

in the absence of real pets. Last but not least, I am incredibly thankful for all my teacher friends

and non-teacher friends who have supported me throughout the process of writing this thesis.

vi

Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... v

List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. viii

Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1

Overview of the Research Design ............................................................................................... 3

Significance of the Study ............................................................................................................ 5

Research Implication .................................................................................................................. 6

Chapter 2: Literature Review .......................................................................................................... 7

Kinesthetic Movement .............................................................................................................. 12

The Mind and Body Connection ............................................................................................... 15

“Rainbow and Ready to Learn”: Calmness and Readiness Improved ...................................... 29

“Happy Like a Robot Pirate”: Emotion Identification and Regulation .................................... 36

“Everybody Should Play Whatever They Want”: Improved Peer Relationships ..................... 40

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 41

Chapter 5: Discussion ................................................................................................................... 43

Implications for the Literature .................................................................................................. 44

Implications for Practice and Policy ......................................................................................... 46

Limitations of the Study and Future Research .......................................................................... 49

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 52

vii

References ..................................................................................................................................... 54

Appendix A: IRB Approval Letter ............................................................................................... 59

6

recognize and respond to social injustice, and to advocate for equitable systems and policies that

importance of students having equitable access to mindfulness and movement activities in the

classroom. Not all students and teachers have access to these practices due to budget restrictions

and lack of extra funding from families in high-income districts. The affluent district this study

was conducted in has enough funding to fund a garden, music, art, and dance program. Not all

districts have such funding, so opportunities for these practices in all classrooms are important.

For teachers looking to provide extra support to their young transitional kindergarten students,

meditation, yoga, and movement are a highly effective and inexpensive way to support students.

Administrators can support the implementation of such activities by creating policies and

supporting training to support teachers in providing these opportunities to their students. School

districts could benefit from implementing a mindfulness and meditation program to support

7

This review specifically examines mindfulness and kinesthetic movement and the impact

these practices have on transitional kindergarteners in a public school setting. Mindfulness has

been shown to increase executive functioning (Kaufman, 2010) and emotion regulation skills

that promote academic achievement in young children (Zelazo, Forston, Masten, & Carlson,

2018). Additionally, kinesthetic movement, including various forms of physical activity like

repetitive movements, yoga, and dance, have been shown to increase cognitive functioning and

development in young children (Zeng, Ayyub, Sun, Wen, Xiang, & Gao, 2017). The literature

also takes a look at the connection between the mind and body and how nurturing both can lead

to improved social and academic performance as well as increased mood and wellbeing in

students (Khan & Hillman, 2014).

8

Meditation dates back historically to being practiced in many different contexts throughout the

meditation, which involves focusing on the present moment and observing thoughts and

emotions without judgment. Another practice is loving-kindness meditation, which involves

cultivating feelings of love and compassion towards oneself and others (Wynne, 2007).

In Taoism, meditation is seen as a way to cultivate internal energy and achieve balance

and harmony with nature. Taoist meditation practices include breathing exercises, visualization

techniques, and physical movements such as Tai Chi and Qi Gong (Cleary, 2000). Christianity

also has a long history of meditation, with practices such as contemplative prayer dating back to

the early Church. Contemplative prayer involves silently meditating on a biblical passage or

sacred word, with the aim of deepening one's relationship with God (Travis & Shear, 2010).

Meditation has become increasingly popular in the modern era, with many people using it as a

9

working memory, manage time, and organize. In turn, students who exhibit high executive

functioning have been shown to have increased academic and social success (Kaufman, 2010).

Studies have shown that implementing mindfulness activities in the early childhood classroom

increases executive functioning skills in the context of students performing goal directed tasks

(Zelazo, Forston, Masten, & Carlson, 2018). The findings in this study imply that the

mindfulness activities performed before the students were asked to execute tasks helped them

calm down and engage in self-regulation, goal-setting, and other abilities related to executive

functioning. This shows that mindfulness can increase executive functioning in early childhood

when used in the classroom and help support student’s academic success.

10

controlled by the prefrontal cortex, this practice can therefore increase abilities that promote

Hulme (2017) asserts that children are often commanded to focus in school, but not told

how. Thus, teaching mindfulness provides students with the tools needed to concentrate and stay

present. Furthermore, Hulme defines mindfulness as the ability to respond thoughtfully to what

is happening in the present moment. Over ten weeks, the MiSP course served as an intervention,

educating students and teachers on mindfulness and what is going on inside of their bodies when

they are stressed. During this study, one student found himself getting aggravated in class and

clenching his fists. Immediately, he identified aloud that his amygdala was being triggered, thus

putting him into the fight-or-flight response. By being able to recognize this, the boy was able to

calm himself down. Hulme (2017) noted how this mindfulness course had a positive impact on

the teachers and students who participated in it, in that the teachers were better able to react with

11

visualization practices, and drawing or writing. This has been proven to be effective in reducing

calmness and stillness. Second, generative meditation is when attention is focused and guided,

such as in a guided meditation or visualization. Third, reflective meditation involves an open

reflection on a particular stimulus, such as a question, thought, or image. There appears,

however, to be a gap in the literature regarding the practice of setting an intention before a

meditation and combining all three of these forms of meditation into a simplified, five-minute

practice for young children.

Studies have shown that using mindfulness in conjunction with yoga has many positive

effects on cognitive function and emotional regulation. Dariotis, Mirabal-Beltran, Cluxton-

Keller, Gould, Greenberg, and Mendelson (2016) evaluated the effectiveness of a sixteen-week

12

poses, and mindfulness practices. During the focus groups and interviews at the end of the study,

of gross motor movement in this stage can affect other areas of development as well. For

example, gross motor development is best acquired with language skills, and the use of gross

motor skills helps with developing other important skills involving executive function

(Sadaruddin, Hajerah, Amri, & Mariyani, 2022). Kinesthetic intelligence, also known as physical

intelligence, is a type of intelligence in which an individual is able to use their body to perform

movements including running, dancing, building, stretching, or any other gross motor movement.

Children who have this ability are able to use parts of their body to solve problems (Tanjung &

Novitri, 2022). As such, kinesthetic movement not only supports the development of gross motor

skills, but also cognitive development and executive functioning.

Braniff (2011) conducted an action research study examining the effects of having an

13

learning, including by increasing production of dopamine and firing of neurons. It also discusses

instance, it has been found that a physical activity intervention performed on children aged 2-6

increased language learning, academic achievement, attention, and working memory (Zeng,

Ayyub, Sun, Wen, Xiang, & Gao, 2017). The beneficial effects exercise has on cognitive

function was also shown through using a two-week crossover design trial with 552 randomly

selected children aged 8-12 by school into two groups. In this case, cognitive tests results from

the group who exercised showed significant improvement in cognition as compared to the

control group that did not exercise (Meijer, Königs, Pouwels, Smith, Visscher, Bosker, Hartman,

& Oosterlaan, 2022). Although limited, this also shows that exercise can have a positive impact

on cognition in as little as one week.

14

Dance and movement therapy in these countries have been found to promote health, feelings of

children as a result from practicing movement. Anecdotal evidence has shown that dance

education and the use of symbolic movement early on drastically increase cognitive development

in the early childhood years (Faber, 2017).

Two music interventions were conducted at primary schools in Hungary: one that

included physical movement, and one that did not (Lukács, Asztalos, Maróti, Farnadi, Deszpot,

Szirányi, Nemes, & Honbolygó, 2022). This study was a longitudinal study spanning a year and

a half that showed a significant difference between the group of students who received the music

and movement intervention as measured by verbal IQ, nonverbal IQ, and verbal fluency.

Reading fluency, in particular, was vastly improved in the movement group. After the

15

difference was found between the pretest and posttest scores of the control group (Özgün, Özkul,

academic success and ability to focus on tasks.

Most of the research examining the connection between physical fitness and cognitive

functioning in young children supports the assertion that physical activity improves children’s

executive functioning skills. Evidence from research has shown that physical activity supports

complex cognitive processes during laboratory tasks (Khan & Hillman, 2014). Becker,

McClelland, Loprinzi, and Trost (2014) assessed whether active play during recess was

associated with self-regulation and academic achievement in a preschool sample. In total, 51

22

how transitional kindergarten students are impacted by a series of activities being added to the

involved in the study.

Ednis Elementary School is located in an affluent suburban neighborhood. According to

the California Department of Education's DataQuest website, the student demographic data for

Ednis Elementary School for the 2021-2022 school year included a total enrollment of 589

students. The majority of the school was white, consisting of 75% white students, 11% Asian

students, 5% Hispanic students, 8% of students being two or more races, and <1% of students

identifying as American Indian, Alaska Native, African American, or Pacific Islander.

Participants and Sampling Procedure

Three transitional kindergarten classes of approximately twenty-two students per class at

Ednis Elementary School in Northern California were invited to participate in an experiential

23

In addition, six educational professionals at the site were invited to participate in

participate in the designed mindfulness and movement intervention, but only students who had

signed proxy consent forms on file had their participation documented and included in the

research data.

overview of what they would be doing. They were informed that participation is optional and

that the students can participate in what they feel comfortable doing, and to skip things with

which they did not feel comfortable. Next, the students were invited to draw how they were

feeling. Papers with body cut-outs were at each seat and students were called by row on the

carpet to get up and choose a seat to start drawing how they felt on the handout of a body.

24

to draw how they felt using the same outline from the baseline drawing activity. The researcher

movement activities. Following this practice, students were asked to draw how they felt using the

same outline from the baseline drawing activity. The researcher later interviewed several

students in the class (See Appendix B for Sample Post-Exercise Questions).

were. Afterwards, they were invited to sit down on the rug, set an intention, repeat slightly

different mantras, then do a guided five-minute meditation. After the meditation, students

participated in five minutes of yoga and slow movement activities. Following this practice,

students were asked to draw how they felt using the same outline from the baseline drawing

activity. After drawing, students were invited to share their drawing, and asked if they noticed

any differences between the previous day and this day (See Appendices D and E again). The

25

the interviews. Written information did not include any names of identifying information (e.g.,

Data was collected through qualitative reflections, open-ended interviews with

educational professionals, open-ended questions in student interviews, drawings from students,

1-5 Likert scale rankings of how calm they felt, and student’s self-reported mood before and

after the activities. All of the interviews were recorded on the researcher’s cell phone and later

transcribed. Immediately after the interviews, the researcher wrote analytic memos to identify

potential bias, trends, patterns, and ideas (Maxwell, 2013). By creating analytic memos after the

interviews, the data was better able to be organized and examined for similarities and

differences.

Interviews were coded by hand and categories of data were created (Maxwell, 2013).

Using this categorized data, a concept map was created to show trends in participants’

26

ended.

The researcher was drawn to this study because she has experience working with this age

group and enjoys doing yoga and meditation in her own spare time, especially to prepare herself

for working in the classroom all day. Additionally, the researcher has done yoga and mindfulness

with the preschool and Kindergarten age group before and has found that students enjoy it and

benefit from it.

To counteract this, the researcher has implemented several strategies for improved

validity. Long-term involvement included the researcher building a strong relationship with the

rest of the transitional kindergarten team at this school. This strong relationship the researcher

formed with her colleagues allowed for more in-depth research findings, rich data, and a higher

27

these methods were used to collect data and increase the validity of the study from drawing on

study (Creswell & Crewell, 2018). There was discrepant evidence in the study as results varied

from student to student.

28

students came to the carpet for five minutes of mindfulness activities and five minutes of yoga

and slow movement activities. After this, they were once again invited to draw how they felt on a

new body cutout. Again, the researcher circulated around the room and asked each student how

they felt and to report how calm they felt on a 1-5 Likert scale.

The goal of this study was to examine how incorporating mindfulness and movement into

the transitional kindergarten classroom impacts attention, emotion regulation, executive function,

mood, and calmness. The first theme revealed in the research was that students’ self-reported

calmness and readiness to learn tended to increase after participating in the mindfulness and

movement activities in this study. This was reflected in one student’s comment that he was

“rainbow and ready to learn.” Secondly, students seemed better able to identify their emotions

29

These findings showed improvements in mood, behavior, and readiness to learn in the

reported calmness and readiness to learn tended to increase after participating in the mindfulness

and movement activities in this study. In part, this was measured by students’ Likert scale

ranking both before and after activities. In general, students tended to report lower (calmer)

scores after participating in the activities. Additionally, students' self-reported mood was more

conducive to learning after participating in the movement and mindfulness activities. For

example, students used terms like “rainbow and ready to learn,” “happy,” “calm,” and “relaxed”

after participating in the activities. Two students tended to draw rainbow pictures after engaging

in the activities and described themselves as “rainbow and ready to learn.” This was notable

because these two students used to struggle with emotion regulation at school, and they seemed

to enjoy the study and showed a significant increase in school engagement during and after the

30

tended to match with student self-reported feelings like “happy,” “excited, " and “ready to learn.”

and had her head lowered towards her hands on her desk during the first round of drawing. She

described herself as feeling, “1- being very calm” and her mood as being, “sad.” She did not care

to elaborate further about why she was feeling sad. We then proceeded to do a guided

affirmation where the students participated in call and response mantra and breathing, where we

said “I am calm, I am relaxed, I am thankful, I am safe, let it go.” Then they lay down, took three

deep breaths, and allowed different body parts to relax and melt into the carpet. The students

were asked to picture a place where they feel calm and happy. At the end, they breathed in love

and breathed it out to all of those around them then gave themselves a hug and a “thank you.”

After this mindfulness sequence, we did five minutes of calming yoga built around child’s pose,

baby cobra, tree pose, rag doll, and ending with Shavasana.

31

course of the school year and had previously observed that Ether was often getting in trouble. He

would frequently become upset with his peers, cry, and try to hit them. His energy and lack of

impulse control would often result in tears. These behaviors continued during the first week of

the study, during which Ether described himself as bored before, during, and after the activities.

During the first week of the study, Ether apathetically described himself as “4 - bored” before the

38

thus succeed at school. This outlook on explicitly teaching children to check in with their

airplanes. He can be shy, but typically has a lot of energy and plays well with his peers.

Sometimes Jas will become withdrawn and when asked how he is doing will shrug or provide

one-word explanations. Over the course of the weeks Jas participated in the movement and

mindfulness activities, his ability to explain why he was feeling certain ways seemed to improve.

Before the week one activities, Jas described himself as feeling like a ‘1’ - meaning very

calm, and as feeling “bored.” He did not care to elaborate on why he felt bored. During the week

1 activities, the students started with repeating the affirmation, “1-2-3 calmer me, 1-2-3, I hug

me.” They then did several butterfly breaths, lifting their elbows up like butterfly wings as they

breathed, and proceeded to tense and relax various muscles in their body before breathing and

letting their body melt into the carpet. After this week's mindfulness sequence, they did eight

39

than one word to describe how they felt during week one, even when asked why they felt that

asked how he was feeling, he once again stated ‘5’ then added eagerly that he felt, “happy like a

robot pirate.” While his original drawing showed an angry face and a lot of dots outside the

picture, his second drawing showed a person with a more wide-eyed expression. Most notably,

Jas’s disposition had changed, and he remained cheerful for the remainder of the day.

Since this study, Jas has become extremely close with two other boys in the class. Every

morning, they excitedly greet each other and stand at the door to cheer and welcome other

students into the classroom. Jas’s demeanor at school has changed drastically. While he used to

be shy or withdrawn at times, now he is outgoing and talkative. Since he started using bigger

40

scissors that fit his hands, he proudly tells everyone that he has big scissors. Not only has Jas’s

meditation each week, during which students were asked to breathe love out to their peers or

repeat affirmations that support positive peer relations like, “I am kind,” “I make good

decisions,” and “I can take the time I need to calm down and feel better.” After participating in

the activities, students generally seemed more social and able to engage positively with their

peers.

One example of improved peer relations was demonstrated by a student named Hadla.

Hadla had the tendency to be bossy in her relationships with her friends. She loved to talk and

assign roles to her friends during imaginary play. During recess, she would lead her friends

around the playground, pointing to various areas and barking commands at them about what they

should do. Although her friends typically followed her commands and did as she says, they

41

change in behavior was noteworthy because it was a stark contrast from Hadla’s typical peer

42

mood, attention, and readiness to learn. Students described feeling calm during the movement

feel comfortable in their ability to teach students how to use these tools. This is where funding

for programs to help teachers teach movement and mindfulness can help support educators in

teaching these skills to their students.

Students who have more struggles at home may have a harder time engaging in mindfulness and

movement, and thus may experience decreased benefits from participating in such activities.

Students who experience greater support, emotional development and stability at home come to

school better prepared to engage with academic skills development. However, this puts many

children at an inequitable disadvantage based on the structural challenges that more deeply

impact some groups of children. In parallel, schools with the most funding may be best able to

provide such programs, but the students there may need it less than schools that lack such

43

student interviews. There was also evidence that students could better identify how they felt

using more descriptive words after participating in the activities. Students' peer relations seemed

to improve after being engaged in the activity as demonstrated by a reduction in interpersonal

conflicts. Students overall seemed to gain an increased sense of calmness after participating in

the study. During the second two weeks of the study, there was a noticeable expansion of

vocabulary used by students to describe how they were feeling, and more significant

improvements in levels of calmness and mood were observed especially after the activities.

Finally, those students who experienced no changes before and after the mindfulness and

movement activities were better able to identify why they were feeling upset or angry after

completing the activities.

44

children (Zeng, Ayyub, Sun, Wen, Xiang, & Gao, 2017). This research was mirrored by the

the mindfulness and yoga sequences had lower calmness scores overall and displayed increased

emotional regulation. Summerford (2009) stated that movement practices in the classroom help

boost mood and increase focus because the movement increases the production of dopamine and

firing of neurons. This was reinforced by the findings of this thesis, as the students overall had

more positive feelings during the second two weeks of the study and after participating in the

study activities as compared to before participating in the activities and during the first week of

the study.

Although much research has studied movement and mindfulness in elementary school,

little to no research has been conducted on movement and mindfulness in the public transitional

45

emotions and why they were feeling that way after participating in the movement and

mindfulness can help students connect with how they are feeling, whether those feelings are

positive or negative, and better be able to explain those emotions.

The findings in this study differ from the findings in the literature because they were

focused more around students' qualitative behavior assessments, drawings, and self-reported

mood and level of calmness. Additionally, while results varied from student to student, this study

viewed increased peer socialization as a positive. Since early childhood is a period where

learning social and emotional skills is critical for successful behavior management later on in

school (Schultz, Richardson, Barber, & Wilcox, 2011), this study focuses on qualitative

observation of social behaviors like many other studies have not. Rather than viewing success as

students sitting quietly, this study sought to view success as students having positive peer

46

body scans, visualization practices, and drawing or writing (Semple & Lee, 2014). It combined

open reflection on a particular stimulus, such as a question, thought, or image (Fisher, 2006).

Lastly, this study focused on slower, calmer movements like yoga and slow movements rather

than cardio or other rapid movements.

This study also found that some students had their energy levels increase after the study,

while some decreased. As a result, qualitative observations of each child’s mood, calmness,

behavior, drawing, and peer relations were combined to form an opinion about how the study

affected them. Overall, students were calmer, but the outliers seemed to benefit too. This differs

from other findings in the literature focused on cognitive function, such as students' brain

network modality (Chaddock-Heyman, Weng, Kienzler, Weisshappel, Drollette, Raine, &

Kramer, 2020). Rather than studying one specific thing, the findings in this study sought to

47

any teacher. Due to the age of the students, being 4-5 years old, it is critical to support their

that brevity was a key component to success in mindfulness and movement practices. Due to

shorter attention spans in young children, the 10-15 minutes of mindfulness and movement

featured in this study helped increase its effectiveness by keeping children engaged. Finally, the

simplicity of activities in this study were key. All of the yoga poses featured in this study were

basic and the use of simple poses can help serve as building blocks to more difficult yoga poses

in the future. These simple poses are also effective toward instilling confidence in young

children and not demanding too much skill in these practices. Overall, the findings in this study

showed that a brief, simple mindfulness and movement practice can benefit young children and

increase their ability to regulate and identify emotions, engage with their peers, and feel better at

school. This implies that future mindfulness and meditation programs can benefit children

54

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