We spend a lot of the time at the beginning of the year discussing big emotions and ways to help us regain self-control. We take breaks, do deep breathing, use our Safe Zone, and practice positive self-talk.
We love this video about calming those big emotions:
Another way to help us calm is our glitter jar. We made special calming glitter jars with warm water, glitter glue, and food coloring.
We shook them up and took deep, calming breaths while we watched the glitter settle. I have never heard them get so quiet!
Parents, maybe consider setting up a Safe Zone at your house as a place for calming. You might add a mirror for viewing emotions, comfortable seating, a stuffed animal, or calming fidgets. Now you can add your glitter jar!
We have been brainstorming rules for how we want it to be when we learn, work, and play together in Room 408. We talked about how we will do our best to stay on track. I told Room 408 how we are like trains.
In fact, we are all like trains running on a track.
Sometimes, we make a mistake and our train runs off the track.
My job is to help get your behavior train back on track and running smoothly again.
There are three ways that I will help get your behavior train back on track.
One way is...
We can break feelings, creations, or have accidents...but the great thing is, we can fix it!
The second way I will help get behavior back on track is...
If you can't be safe with something or take care of something, I wouldn't be doing my job if I let you keep doing it! For example, if you were walking across the top of the monkey bars you might need to simply stay away from the monkey bars until you are ready to show me you can be safe.
The last way I'll help keep you on track is...
Sometimes we all just need a little time to get ourselves under control. Take your break, take some quick calming breaths and come back ready to learn.
We all got to practice taking a break in our "Take a Break" spots. While we practiced, we watched a calming music youtube video.
We also put these pictures up as a reminder of the three ways I will help us get back on track.
This week we also talked about how we have different states of our brain.
We all want to be in the Executive State, which is when we are making good choices and have good self-control. It's like when you're driving your Brain Car.
Sometimes, we get into our Emotional State. This is when we might be mean to others, cry, or say hurtful things. It's like you're in the backseat of your Brain Car--not in control!
We also might get into our Survival State. We might hit, scream, or hurt others when we are in this state. It's like when we are in the trunk of our Brain Car--definitely not showing self-control!
When we are in our Emotional State or our Survival State, we can use the Safe Zone in our classroom. This is a quite place to go when we might need a little longer to gain self-control. As a class we talked about how this happens to all of us...even adults! We watched this video to help us learn how to calm.
We even made our own calming Glitter Jars to take home. Here is a link explaining it.
We have been brainstorming rules for how we want it to be when we learn, work, and play together in Room 612. We talked about how we will do our best to stay on track. I told Room 612 how we are like trains.
In fact, we are all like trains running on a track.
Sometimes, we make a mistake and our train runs off the track.
My job is to help get your behavior train back on track and running smoothly again.
There are three ways that I will help get your behavior train back on track.
One way is...
We can break feelings, creations, or have accidents...but the great thing is, we can fix it!
The second way I will help get behavior back on track is...
If you can't be safe with something or take care of something, I wouldn't be doing my job if I let you keep doing it! For example, if you were walking across the top of the monkey bars you might need to simply stay away from the monkey bars until you are ready to show me you can be safe.
The last way I'll help keep you on track is...
Sometimes we all just need a little time to get ourselves under control. Take your break, take some quick calming breaths and come back ready to learn.
We all got to practice taking a break in our "Take a Break" spots. While we practiced, we watched a calming music youtube video.
We also put these pictures up as a reminder of the three ways I will help us get back on track.
This week we will talk about how we have different states of our brain.
We all want to be in the Executive State, which is when we are making good choices and have good self-control. It's like when you're driving your Brain Car.
Sometimes, we get into our Emotional State. This is when we might be mean to others, cry, or say hurtful things. It's like you're in the backseat of your Brain Car--not in control!
We also might get into our Survival State. We might hit, scream, or hurt others when we are in this state. It's like when we are in the trunk of our Brain Car--definitely not showing self-control!
When we are in our Emotional State or our Survival State, we can use the Safe Zone in our classroom. This is a quite place to go when we might need a little longer to gain self-control. As a class we talked about how this happens to all of us...even adults! We watched this video to help us learn how to calm.
We even made our own calming Glitter Jars to take home. Here is a link explaining it.
We realize that even though we do our best to use words that are kind and encourage others, sometimes we still have problems.
We introduced a new tool to help us work through our problems. It's called our Time Machine, and it's a way to rewind time and solve our problems in a more productive way.
When someone has a problem, we make sure we are willing to work on the problem. If we're willing we stand at the ends of the mat. Collin and Donovan offered to demonstrate:
Next, we step onto the mat and take a STAR breath (Stop, Take a breath, And Relax).
After that we wish each other well.
Next, we say, "1-2-3, Let's do it!"
One person tells the other person what s/he did that s/he didn't like, and asks them to stop. The other person does their best to understand the problem and help by saying, "Okay, I can do that."
Finally, we seal the deal with a high five, a handshake, or a hug.
If needed, the two switch places and do it again.
Using the time machine really diffuses our problems and makes it easier to work them out!
We are continuing our focus on how we can be kind to others and to ourselves. This is illustrated beautifully in these books:
and Sad, The Dog
We did a lesson about how words can help and heal our hearts.
As we read a book, each time the character's heart was hurt by others we crinkled a paper heart. When someone was kind, we smoothed out the wrinkles.
However, we realized that the wrinkles/negative words never really get all the way smoothed out. This illustrates why it's important to do our best to use kind words.
We have also been talking about our Hopes & Dreams and decorated balloons for our Hopes & Dreams.
We look forward to sharing these hopes and dreams with our families during conferences these two weeks!
Lately we have been noticing how our words can help or hurt. We can choose to have powerful self-talk, and we can use our words to encourage others. Our words are powerful!
I shared the following quotation with Room 408:
We talked about how positive self-talk is very important, especially when things get tough.
We made a ring of self-affirmations to keep in our safe zone.
Each student decorated a self-affirmation card for the ring to keep in our Safe Zone for when we need a boost to believe in ourselves. They worked so hard to make sure people would feel good when they looked at them!
Here is a great video about believing in yourself.
Today we made our calming glitter jars. To see how they help us, refer to this post by clicking on these words. Many of the kids in Room 408 said they wanted to set up a Safe Zone at their house.
