EXPRESS YOURSELF! Friday 9th February

 2024’s Children’s Mental Health Week theme is

'Express Yourself.'

You will have the opportunity to express yourselves through performance. This could be:

a dance,

 a song,

  a poem (you could write your own or perform a favourite),

 or something else?

If you would prefer not to perform in front of your class, you could do it just to your friends or a member of staff.

  Or you could write a poem and someone else could perform it. 

Or you could bring in a piece of art you have made to express yourself.

At home, please plan what you will do, practice and be prepared to express yourself in school on Friday 9th February.

Worry Wizard Workshop with Year 1.

Year 1 took part in a Worry Wizard Workshop, which focused on different feelings and emotions. They were able to name different emotions and explored them through drama, music and facial expressions. We discussed how we may feel a range of emotions throughout the day and that all feelings are okay.

Zones of Regulation

As you know, Bannockburn uses The Zones of Regulation to help everyone achieve their best.

As a recap- What are The Zones of Regulation?
The Zones of Regulation help children to achieve an optimal state of alertness for the activity that they are doing. The Zones concept helps children to categorise their emotions into four coloured categories (blue, green, yellow and red), this helps to open a channel of communication, self-reflection and self-regulation that children often find difficult.

Children gain the understanding the all feelings are ok, but not all behaviours are ok, and they need to learn how to avoid triggers and which tools work for them, in order to stop their behaviours from becoming unacceptable.

There are four zones to describe how your brain and body feel.

BLUE Zone – Your body is running slow, such as when you are tired, sick, sad or bored.

GREEN Zone – Like a green light, you are “good to go.” Your body may feel happy, calm and focused.

YELLOW Zone – This zone describes when you start to lose control, such as when you are frustrated, anxious, worried, silly or surprised. Use caution when you are in this zone.

RED Zone – This zone is for extreme emotions such as anger, terror and aggression. When you are in this zone, you are out of control, have trouble making good decisions and must STOP!

TIPS FOR HANDLING A CHILD IN THE RED ZONE

Safety is first priority

Limit verbals

This is not a teachable moment

Validate the child's feelings

Give them time and space

Designated safe spot

Avoid power struggles

Teach all tools in a calm regulated state

Video to help children return to school during the coronavirus pandemic

Nottinghamshire Educational Psychology Services have written a therapeutic story to help young children to explore feelings relating to a return to school during the coronavirus pandemic. They also made it into the below animation.

Click here- The Little Elf and the Flowers of Hope and Bravery

After watching the video, here are some questions you could use to help discuss the story.

1. What might be Little Elf’s hopes and fears for returning to school? 
2. How was Little Elf feeling before he visited the flowers?
3. What advice could the wise woodpecker give to Little Elf?
4. How is Little Pixie feeling when his wings grow big?
5. What other ideas could the flowers give To Little Elf and Little Pixie?
6. How was Little Elf feeling at the end of the story?
7. What do you think might happen next in the story?
8. Is there a part of the story or a character you would like to draw a picture of?

Expressing ourselves for Children's Mental Health Week

Last week, the children learned more about why expressing themselves and their emotions is really important.

On Friday, they 'Dressed to Express' themselves. They may also have pulled some funny faces!

• Can you find yourself or your friends? 
• What emotions can you see being expressed?
• What ZONE do you think they could be in?
• There are lots of children dressed in red. Do you think they are in the red zone, or that red could be a cheerful colour for some?
• Some children don't look very happy. How might they be feeling? Why?

Children's Mental Health Week. February 1st - 7th.

 This year's theme is Express Yourself.

Your children's teachers will be doing activities next week around this, whether they are in school or on Google Classroom. 

One of these with be encouraging your child to 'Dress to Express' on Friday (unless they have PE in school). Their teacher will tell them more. They can express themselves through their clothes, hair, accessories etc. They could wear their favourite colour or choose a range of colours that express how they’re feeling. In the lesson on Friday, if they want to, they can explain how their outfit represents them.

What can you all do at home?

Draw your feelings You could share one of these with your class, or email to school for the blog.

The Squiggle Game

Place2Be have some ideas for parents/ carers.

"Here are a few simple ways you can encourage your child to express themselves.

1) Could you build on existing interests or passions? Think about what has helped them get through the past year. A love of dancing? Baking? Drawing? Fashion? Encourage your child by noticing their unique interests and praising their efforts.

2) Trying new things can be a great way to find a new creative outlet. There are lots of online tutorials and video demos that you and your child could be inspired by... could you try out something new together? Or perhaps ask someone you know to share their creative hobbies and give them a go.

3) Some children may not think of themselves as being creative. Try to focus on the importance of the process and the way it can make them feel, rather than the end result. Try not to judge their efforts and remember to give encouragement for trying rather than for doing something well.

4) Listening carefully can help children feel more comfortable and confident when expressing themselves. Try to minimise distractions and give your child your full attention when you’re spending time together, being aware of your own body language and eye contact. You might want to try summarising what they’ve shared and acknowledging their feelings.

5) Children are expressing themselves all the time but not necessarily with words. ‘Listen’ to everything they are trying to tell you with their behaviour, or with their play and creativity or with their silence. It’s all self-expression.

6) Remember – you don’t need a lot of expensive equipment to get creative at home. Recyclable materials or older items you no longer have a use for can provide amazing inspiration, and of course there’s no limit to your imagination!

Let your child know that if they are worried about something, they should always talk to an adult they trust. It could be you, someone in your family, a teacher or someone else in their school."

Click here for more Wellbeing-activity-ideas-for-families

The Zones of Regulation

At Bannockburn, we use 

• The Zones of Regulation are four coloured zones that help us to categorise our emotions. Each zone explains how we are feeling.

• When we understand how we feel, we can self-reflect and identify if we need to self-regulate. We want to be in the green zone as much as possible.

• All feelings are ok, but not all behaviours are ok.

• We all need to learn how to avoid triggers and identify which tools work for us, in order to stop behaviours from becoming unacceptable.

• We can also support others- when we understand how others are feeling and which zone they are in; we can identify if they may need some help.

Whilst you are staying safe at home, you can use this time to get everyone you live with to practice identifying which zone they are in. 

Then can everyone try some of these tools and keep track of which work for them?

Looking after your mental health and wellbeing - 1

Start a diary.

Adults and children, at least a few words a day. 

This is not with the aim to practice English skills (although that is a bonus), but with the idea that getting our thoughts, worries, ideas and activities down on paper, helps to process and deal with what is going on in our lives.

Also, this is going to be a huge part of world history. We will all be able to look back on these diaries and share the experience with future generations. 

The kind people behind Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) have made their app available for free for the next 3 months. It has mindfulness exercises and meditation, goal setting and support with managing difficult feelings. 

The app is called: ACT companion: The Happiness Trap 

You need to sign up using an email address then go to the menu, select subscription and enter the promo code. You do not need to enter any card details. It is likely that once the subscription runs out it automatically cancels, but you may want to set a reminder to check it is cancelled when the 3 months is up. 

The promo code to get it free is: TOGETHER 

Children's Mental Health Week 2019

During Children's Mental Health Week, every child in the school participated in activities to support our mental health and well-being. 

Every day the children tried different ways we can help our own mental health and wellbeing. These included; the Daily Mile, meditation, yoga, circle time, tips for sleeping, work on a healthy and balanced diet, helping the environment, volunteering, charity work, team work games, friendship activities...and many more.  

The importance of sleep was a very popular topic. They now all know that they need 10-12 hours sleep every night. 

The children in Reception all listened to the story of 'Peace at Las​t' and then sorted cards into things that would stop Daddy Bear getting to sleep and things that would help him. 

In Year 4, they talked about the importance of sleep and how if can affect both physical and mental health. The children came up with improved bedtime routines, which it is hoped will enable them to relax better and get a longer, better, more fruitful sleep. 

Years 1 and 2 enjoyed work around putting your worries away in a bag, linked to the book 'A huge bag of worries.' They also used word searches, quizzes, crosswords and matching games to help them explore different concepts. 

Year 4 Ash class had a wonderful discussion about what to do when you are feeling low. They had great ideas, such as; six deep breaths, talk to a friend and do something that you love and are good at. 

Lots of the children liked the idea of writing down how you feel and then ripping it up! 

They took away from the discussions that your mental health is as important as your physical health. 

Year 5 practised a variety of ways to deal with their emotions and to calm themselves. They learnt the 'Take 5 breathing' technique and did some yoga at their desks. 

They also discussed how everyone has mental health and that at any point in the day, that moves up and down a scale between good and poor mental health. 

We are using The Zones of Regulation to help children understand different emotions and that it is important that they can recognise these emotions and what to do with them. 

'When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting and less scary.' Fred Rogers