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Every week, each child in Grimsdell enjoys a mindfulness session in their classrooms. EYFS and Year 1 are working through Mindfulness in Schools ‘dots’ curriculum for 3-6 year olds. Within ‘dots’ we are ‘sowing the seeds’ of mindfulness. The themes of ‘dots’ are based on three interlinked and overarching themes: Awareness, Connection and Emotion.
This week since it was after half term, I felt that was vital to check in with the children to see how they are feeling so we strayed from the curriculum to talk about our feelings in terms of the weather. For example, if I was feeling happy today, I could say that I felt sunny. Or if I felt sad today, I could say that I felt rainy. It came out that many children had been frightened by the recent storms we have been having, so it might be worth checking in with your child yourself to see if you can allay any of their worries. I reminded them of the Grimsdell way to ‘share our worries’ with an adult. We finished our sessions with tummy and chest breathing – see if your child can share this practice with you.
In Year 2 we are working through Mindfulness in Schools ‘Paws b’ curriculum for 7-11 year olds and this week our focus was ‘Noticing the Wobble’. We started our session with a ‘Pause be’ practice. The children were keen to talk about times when they had noticed themselves wobbling, perhaps during a maths lesson or in the playground when they found themselves getting upset.
We talked about how we felt when we wobbled and what we could do to help ourselves to feel better. We are trying to instil a culture of ‘mistakes are how we learn’ as many children expressed that they had a desire to get things right and perfect the first time. Next we moved onto the ‘Power of Yet’! Turing “I can’t do it” into “I can’t do it yet”. Again whilst these topics are not specifically part of the Paws b curriculum, I went with the children’s needs and what they wanted to discuss.
Finally, we ended our session by teaching the children about finger breathing – see if they can share this practice with you.
