Mindful Mats helps schools practice mindfulness

Several schools volunteered to help develop new designs, contributing to the development over a year long collaboration with the Action Mats developers. The brief was to create a resource to help children with emotional self-regulation.

and support social emotional learning, to provide them with key skills they will use into adulthood.

Multi award-wining educational resource creator Action Mats has developed the world’s first Mindful Mats. Having won Best Primary Resource at the Education Resources Awards 2022, Kids Judge BETT 2022 and Innovation Award at GESS Dubai 2022, for their Action Packed set designed for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, Action Mats developed Mini Mats for EYFS.

Mini Mats are created to promote the development of movement skills in EY children. The focus is on balance, fine and gross motor-skills as well as handeye coordination and dexterity.

Feedback from schools using Action Mats resources, informed that many were using some of the designs from the collections, in ‘sensory circuit’ configurations. Indeed, requests were made to look at sensory circuits activities as dedicated mat designs, rather than bending the existing ones to suit.

During that year designs were sketched and assessed, produced as prototypes and tested with children in all year groups. Three schools in the South West, North and South East of England tested the designs over several months, assessing engagement, understanding of the tasks shown in the graphics, enjoyment of the activities and effectiveness in delivering the required results.

By the end of the year, a new range of sixteen mats took on the product name, Mindful Mats and was ready for launch.

Mindful Mats helps schools practice mindfulness with children, using selfregulation activities that can help improve a child’s emotional wellbeing, help them focus and so aid effective learning.

Perfect for all primary school ages, Mindful Mats are designed to help children regulate their emotions using the self-regulation and sensory stations in the set of designs. Activities range from cerebral and active, to controlled and dynamic all within a 1M x 1M space.

Helping children to understand and manage their emotions, can aid behaviour management

The mats can be used individually or collectively, offering different routes to regulation, whether that’s breathing techniques or controlled physical activities. Children are provided with tools to help them refocus, redirect and recover and above-all, be ready to reengage and ready to learn. L

FURTHER INFORMATION www.actionmats.co.uk