Relax... It's MCAS Time

Written by Samantha Gondelman & Caroline McDaniel, Fourth Grade Students at Ben-Hem

During our MCAS unit, Ms. Killoran, a Kindergarten teacher at Ben Hem offered to teach Yoga to the 3rd & 4th graders before school.  The idea of doing yoga before the MCAS is to help us relax before our long, hard and stressful day of test.

She had a relaxing tone in her voice that helped us to stay calm and relax.  She taught us the child pose, the rock pose, the tree and warrior 101 was our favorite.  Warrior 101 was “I am strong, I am brave, I am powerful and I am smart”.  It made us feel really good about ourselves.

We also learned that counting and breathing also helps to relax the mind and body.  This class was a great idea to kick off MCAS week.  When we went into our classrooms to start writing, we had a different view on how to take the MCAS test. 

We can’t wait to do it again!

Thank you Ms. Killoran!

 The Yoga for MCAS program offered a 30 minute yoga class before school for 3rd and 4th graders on the day of their MCAS exams. Students learned breathing techniques and yoga poses to reduce stress and anxiety and promote creative thinking, problem solving and memory recall. 18 third graders and 22 fourth graders participated in the program.