NOVEMBER SEL PROJECT NEWS
ACROSS NH is pleased to announce the dates and times for our second launch of the Social, Emotional, and Mindfulness Learning (SEML) Cohort! Please sign up as soon as possible to support us in our planning efforts. We look forward to having you join our community of Social, Emotional, and Mindfulness Learning Out-of-School Time (OST) professionals. Together we will work toward creating a strong culture of self-aware, connected, and contributing individuals in OST programs in New Hampshire. Click here for details.
Register by January 21st!
Dear ACROSS NH Social, Emotional, and Mindfulness Learning Community,
What a beautiful autumn we’ve been having this year! I’m not sure I can think of a fall season where the foliage lasted as long as it has this year. Throughout the hustle of what has been, I am sure for all of us, a busier than ever start to the school year with numerous competing demands for our attention, I have found that those precious moments carved out to be out in nature throughout my week has been a saving grace.
This fall, ACROSS NH has launched for the second year, its Social and Emotional Learning in Afterschool Cohort. We’re of to a great start in forming our team of Out-of-School Time professionals who are ready to put SEL on the front burner in their programs. Welcome to the cohort to all who are participating.
In October, we held our first Social, Emotional, and Mindfulness Learning Quarterly Community of Practice. This quarterly community of practice is comprised of those in our learning community who have completed either the SEL in Afterschool Cohort, and/or the Social, Emotional, and Mindfulness Learning Cohort. It was a wonderful time of reconnecting and reflection together after our summers apart and we will be meeting again each season to strengthen our connections to each other and provide a stable foundation for SEL in OST here in NH.
Warm wishes for the remaining days of fall!
Abigail J. Blodgett
Social and Emotional Learning Project Coordinator, ACROSS NH
CONNECTING MINDFULNESS PRACTICES
WITH THE NATURAL WORLD
CLIPS
In the following videos, we can hear from two mindfulness practitioners about their nature-based mindfulness practices and glean from their narratives the possible important outcomes that can come from engagement in these types of practices. 
Scott Haber, Nature Advocate, created this video as a project he worked on to be a youth delegate at the UN Climate Talks in Poland. Listen as he describes how curating a mindful connection with the natural world may play a key role in young people becoming more thoughtful earth stewards.
Luke A. Skillen, Advocate for Humanity and Teacher, describes his experience with mindfulness and nature in this short clip from the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education’s YouTube Channel. 
SNIP
Come check out this quick read on the power of mindfulness with children in nature. “When we share mindfulness with children, we are helping them develop their own personal tool for managing life’s uncomfortable and challenging moments. We are helping them develop resilience. Nature is a place of regeneration, resilience, learning, peace and escape. Tuning in to the sights and sounds of nature’s steady beat draws a child’s attention to the here and now and helps to reduce stress and worry. Children feel stronger and more confident by aligning themselves with nature. Their stresses will melt away.” To read more visit https://www.childhoodbynature.com/being-mindful-in-nature/.
IN-A-SNAP
Check out the following resources for activities and ideas connecting mindfulness and nature. Do you have any practices that engage your children and youth in your program with nature as a part of the program? If so, I’d love to hear from you! Email me at ablodgett@seresc.net.
Mindfulness Activities:
“Engaging Mindfully Outdoors: Activities and Strategies for Kids”
“Outdoor Mindfulness Activities”
Mindfulness Literature:
Children's literature can offer us resources for incorporating nature-based mindfulness practices into our work. Check out "The Listening Walk" by Paul Showers as a girl and her dog walk with deliberate intention to hear the sounds from the world around them.
"A Handful of Quiet: Happiness in Four Pebbles," by Thich Nhat Hanh, presents a nature based mindful practice. To order a copy of the book go to https://www.parallax.org/product/a-handful-of-quiet-happiness-in-four-pebbles/.
DOWNLOADABLE GUIDES FROM ACROSS NH
Guided Resource Walk Trainings
If you have questions about these trainings, or you would like to request a Resource Introduction Training for your program, please email acrossnh@seresc.net or call (603) 206-6848.
This guide seeks to support afterschool programs with the development of policies that seek to include all children and youth. Research shows many positive outcomes from participation in afterschool programs that intentionally address growth in personal and social skills.
Social and Emotional Learning takes place in all contexts that children and youth participate: their homes, schools, out-of-school time environments, and communities. The field of afterschool’s commitment to Social and Emotional Learning can make a profound difference in the lives of the young people served, and in the adults who guide them.
If you would like to request a printed copy of one of these guides,
please email acrossnh@seresc.net. Quantities are limited.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
PLEASE CONTACT:
Abigail J. Blodgett, NH ASMP & ECMP
Social and Emotional Learning Project Coordinator
ACROSS NH, a project of SERESC
165 South River Road, Unit F
Bedford, NH 03110
Art by Mercy, 12 years old
ACROSS NH is a project of the Southeastern Regional Education Service Center (SERESC) and is funded by the Bureau of Child Development and Head Start Collaboration. Our goal is to provide statewide technical assistance and professional development opportunities to afterschool providers to support their work in creating high quality, innovative programs for schoolage children.