Grade 1 Tapping into Learning in Zurich Schule Barcelona
WHAT’S UP: On 23rd October 2024, I team taught a tapping into learning lesson with the brilliant IB school trainer, Anna Bernadas, as well as Zürich Schule Barcelona‘s excellent PYP teachers, Alexandra Morral Pligl and Helena Garcia. Here is why, how, and with what results we decided to teach tapping to Grade 1 via a carefully co-planned one hour lesson.
This is a bilingual classroom where the children speak Spanish and German, so Alexandra is co-teaching some subjects with Helena. They also co-teach some units such as the units on inquiry that this tapping lesson falls under. This is so that the lessons can be bilingual (German-Spanish). The school is proud of providing a service with two teachers in the classrooms for so many hours.
I believe it’s important to share good practice and celebrate the things that are going well in schools, such as the great work that teachers like Alexandra and Helena are doing in their classrooms. You will see from the quality of what their students said during this tapping lesson that they have created a good learning environment. They clearly care about their students and their development.
Why Bother Tapping into LearNing with grade 1 Students?
Zürich Schule Barcelona is an IB school that offers the PYP (Primary School Programme) in Grade 1. Part of the programme involves encouraging students to develop certain character traits, not only to become successful lifelong learners, but also to have manners and be good citizens in the world. These include being open-minded, balanced, risk-takers, and reflective learners.
It is the start of a new school year and Grade 1 have been doing a PYP unit called ‘Who we are?’ This is a whole unit dedicated to self knowledge and metacognition. The unit is about how emotions influence the learning.
During the unit, students have been realising that if they are nervous and stressed they cannot learn as effectively. That is why Alexandra and Helena have been introducing students to different kinds of breathing, such as Finger Breathing. It’s all about gaining better control and knowledge of who they are by building their self awareness and self management skills. It also goes really well with the PYP programme’s inquiry into identity and individuals as part of a collective though understanding how do we learn and grow.
Prior to this lesson, students had already learned some breathing techniques for helping their brain feel calmer and ready to learn. So the basic tapping technique and the Tap and Breathe technique that I taught them followed on nicely as they are two more activities that they can add to their toolbox to build their self knowledge and metacognition – all the while growing their brains neuroplasticity.
It is a bilingual classroom where the children speak Spanish and German. I can’t speak Spanish or German, so Anna who speaks Spanish led the first half of the lesson while Alexandra translated into German for the children who don’t speak Spanish. So the tapping lesson we taught was delivered in three languages (Spanish, German, and English) AND it was a hybrid lesson as I was Zoomed in!
Ultimately, this lesson served as a stepping stone to help the kids learn the concepts of neuroplasticity, the Growth Mindset, and the importance of taking time out to calm ourselves down so that we can learn better and do better work.
Some people may say “Oh, they are too little to be learning about this sort of stuff”…but our experience shows otherwise. This lesson is an example of how it can be done with children as young as 1st Grade with great results.
How we taught Grade 1 tapping
Anna started the lesson by explaining to the children why we were there and why we were going to do this lesson today. Meanwhile, the classroom teacher and PYP Coordinator helped me Zoom into the classroom by setting the tech side of the lesson up on the projector.
Anna then introduced me to the kids and delivered the first emotional awareness activity by asking them to put their hand up using an Emotion Mat as a way of getting a sense of how everyone was feeling. The Emotion Mat she used is an age-appropriate Social Emotional Learning resource I made for the Grade 1 students I worked with. I created it because I noticed sometimes kids don’t know how they are feeling. Yet there were no emojis for ‘I don’t know’ in the printable Emotion Mats I found online for teaching self knowledge to children. So I made a resource myself to solve that problem (see below).
Most of the children said they were feeling happy (1). Two were feeling a bit sad (2). None were feeling angry (3), and four were not really sure how they felt (4).
I then invited whoever wanted to try tapping to see if it could help them feel better – and the ones who already felt happy, to see if it helped them feel even better. You can watch this short video to learn the tapping sequence I taught them.
These are the tapping points recommended by world-renowned Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Peta Stapleton, for use with kids under the age of 10 in school settings and beyond.
Alexandra had printed these two resources out, partly as teaching aids for the lesson and partly so that students could refer to them as memory joggers after the lesson. You can see them in use on the whiteboard below.
After we finished taking the class through this first round of basic tapping, Anna explained that the name of what we just did is ‘Tapping’. That is what this is called. Tapping.
Next, she asked the children to reflect on how they were feeling after one round of tapping using a thumbs up (better than before), down (worse), sideways (not sure how I feel) activity. A couple of them already felt better than before after just one round, and some were unsure.
Anna then explained what happens inside us when we tap as Eleni tapped using a Glitter Jar that represents our body. Children watched as the glitter, representing stirred up feelings inside us, started to settle down in the jar as I tapped. Alexandra explained that they can use tapping if they are nervous, for example, because we can’t learn well if we are nervous.
We then did one more round, this time adding an extra inhale and exhale step as we tapped on each point. In EFT we call this the Tap and Breathe technique. It’s great for introducing tapping into school settings because it adds an extra layer of variety and fun to the tapping process once they have learned the tapping points.
After just these two rounds of tapping, the atmosphere in the room had visibly shifted. More children said they felt better. Most of their hands went up wanting to say something. Each child patiently waited for their turn to share their reflection of what tapping was like for them.
Anna kindly translated into English after each one said what wanted to say so that I understood what they were saying.
Here is what they wanted to say:
- One said, “I’m feeling a bit tired.”
- Another said “I really liked it because it helped me.”
- One boy said he liked it because he liked “this” (tapping on the eyebrow point with the fingers).
- Another boy said he likes it because it’s like a massage.
- A girl said she liked it because she can relax better and do work better.
- Another child then added ‘We can do it when we are angry so we can feel better’.
- Then another one added ‘Or when we are sad, we can also use it’.
- Another added ‘Even if we don’t know how we are feeling, we can also use it’.
- Then another one added ‘Even when we are doing something, and we cannot do it, maybe we can stop and do this and try again’.
- One girl then said she feels more comfortable after doing this.
- One girls said she also likes the massage aspect of this.
- One boy said he felt very relaxed.
- A girl said she likes it, it feels like a shower.
- A boy added he also felt like water was pouring down.
- Another boy said he also felt like water was relaxing him.
- Another child said ‘It feels like tickling’ (referring to the under arm tapping).
- Finally, a child proposed that ‘Even when we don’t have work to do, when we are bored, we can also do it.’
Anna proposed we do one last round of tapping, but with no talking, in silence. So we did one more round of Tap and Breathe, and closed the tapping activities there. By this time the first 25 minutes of the lesson were over, and I bid them farewell to let them get on with the final learning consolidation activity.
Drawing for learning
The last activity was a Glitter Jar drawings exercise. It was done partly to help them consolidate their learning, and partly for the teacher to assess their understanding of the concept of tapping.
Here is a sample of some of the Tapping drawings the children made to to show their understanding of how the Glitter Jar represents what happens inside them when they tap and breathe. They were asked to label what they got from tapping or how they would use it in future.
Anna has translated what the children said into English.
Finally, Anna encouraged them to take action by sharing it at home with their parents and grandparents as homelearning. She also encouraged them to make their own Glitter Jars to bring in as a sensory reminder of what goes on inside us when we do things like tapping and breathing to calm ourselves down.
One week later
Alexandra and Helena have reported that the kids took tapping home and have started teaching it to members of their family. Their Grade 1 students also have their Glitter Jar ready for use in the classroom. Helena is happy that now and then she catches the kids just sitting there and just tapping on themselves quietly in class when they are feeling something.
Meanwhile, since Helena also co-teaches Grade 2, she has already taught tapping to her other class. The students in the 2nd Grade class she co-teaches with her colleague Sylvia have already reported doing tapping at home with their families, too.
Also, Anna has heard from another teacher in another IB school where she trains staff that she was inspired from reading this article and she now wants to try it with her students as well!
One MONTH after that (DEC. 2024)
The PYP Coordinator, Helena, reported that they are very happy with the outcome of the tapping session. The students are still practicing EFT when they are very nervous – in fact they ask their teachers to do it!
At this point, it made sense to support Helena and Alexandra, the Grade 1 teachers, as well as Sylvia (2nd Grade teacher) and Lisa (co-teacher and Maths teacher) who were interested in experiencing a tapping session for staff well-being. It was the end of the first semester and they were all up for experiencing a group tapping session for their own well-being.
I believe that resourcing staff through tapping sessions as a follow up to introductory training experiences is vital for tapping in schools initiatives to have a meaningful impact. When we take good care of our teachers and school leaders, they have the energy and motivation to continue doing great work in their school. Or as international schools trainer, Jane Hollands puts it, “You wanna see happy kids? You need happy teachers.”
So on December 3rd, we did a well-being session for the four teachers who were implementing this tapping in the classroom initiative: Helena, Lisa, Sylvia, and Alexandra. It took the place of that week’s team planning meeting. Because all four teachers were experiencing stress-related aches and pains when we met, I led them through a series of tapping exercise targetting that specific issue. We started by doing some Silent Tapping and Tap and Breathe for general relaxation. Next, I led them through a series of group tapping exercises using an EFT Tapping technique called Chase the Pain.
The outcome of the tapping session was as follows. One teacher experience a shift in stress-related pain from what felt like an 8/10 in intensity before EFT to a 4/10 by the time the session was over, reporting it to have been “a great experience”. Another teacher’s back pain went from what felt like a 10/10 to a 7/10. She reported feeling like the remaining 7/10 pain in her lower back was physical due to repetitive strain injury (repeatedly having to lift her young child). She felt we had cleared the stress component of her pain.
Meanwhile, another one reported a drop in her shoulder pain from a 6/10 to a 3.5 or 4/10, as well as a drop in her tension headache from a 6/10 to a 0/10 after tapping (“The pain in eyebrows is gone. I feel relaxed. I feel like I do after a yoga class”). Finally, the fourth teacher had reported experiencing a chest pain that she felt was due to stress at a 6/10 intensity before we did EFT. By the end of the session, that dropped to a 0/10 (“I feel OK. I’m good. I don’t have pain. I have another staff meeting to go to right after this, but I feel OK. This tapping session was really relaxing and it helped us realize the need to connect with our body”).
NEXT STEPS
I created this short tapping for kids under 10 YouTube video that they can use in class to help inspire their students to keep going.
Finally, I recommended that the four teachers who took part in the tapping session for staff try this tapping meditation for rest and relaxation as end of semester self-care.
RESEARCH PAPERS ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF EFT IN GENERAL AND ON EFT IN SCHOOL ENVIRONMENTS
Aremu, A. O., & Taiwo, A. K. (2014). “Reducing Mathematics Anxiety Among Students with Pseudo-Dyscalculia in Ibadan through Numerical Cognition and Emotional Freedom Techniques: Moderating Effect of Mathematics Efficacy.” African Journal for the Psychological Studies of Social Issues, 17(1), 113–129.
Church D, Stapleton P, Vasudevan A, O’Keefe, T (2022) “Clinical EFT as an Evidence-based Practice for the Treatment of Psychological and Physiological Conditions: A Systematic Review” Frontiers Psychology, Sec. Psychology for Clinical Settings. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.951451
Gaesser, A. H. (2019). Emotional freedom techniques (EFT): Stress and anxiety management for students and staff in school settings. In M. A. Bray & C. Maykel (Eds.), Promoting Mind-Body Health in Schools: Interventions for Mental Health Professionals. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Gaesser, A. H., & Karan, O. C. (2017). “A Randomized Controlled Comparison of Emotional Freedom Technique and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy to Reduce Adolescent Anxiety: A Pilot Study.” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 23(2), 102-108. Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial. Doi:10.1089/acm.2015.0316
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Kordi, M. (2023) “The Effectiveness of Emotional Release Technique (EFT) on the Expression Anxiety of Secondary School Students of Bagh-e Malek City”, Quarterly Journal of Approach to Philosophy in Schools and Organizations. Masters in Ed. Psychology dissertation, DOI: 10.22034/esbam.2024.435636.1043.
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Techniques on Stress Biochemistry: A Randomized Controlled Trial”, Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy
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MEET ELENI
Eleni Vardaki is a former IB History and TOK teacher who now works as a staff trainer and EFT Tapping specialist. In her private practice she offers therapeutic coaching services that support the well-being of kids and adults. She also delivers training on mental health topics such as how to apply EFT Tapping for well-being in school and as Psychological First Aid in school settings. She works with international schools that are interested in building EFT Tapping for learning and staff/student well-being into their school day.
