Foundation

This term in FMH we have been working on listening to others and taking turns when playing and working together. During our literacy, maths and science lessons the students have been working on their collaboration skills to complete tasks. A highlight of their cooperative skills was when they followed a procedure and shared the roles to make and launch their balloon rockets.

We have enjoyed completing our first four TRP (The Resilience Project) lessons. The students have been learning about their emotions. Their favourite game has been Emotional Charades. One of their favourite videos from our lesson on gratitude has been the Kindness Boomerang - "One Day" The discussion after watching this video was inspiring to hear coming from 5 year olds. They have made a class gratitude paper chain where they drew and wrote about a person, place and thing they are grateful for in their lives. They loved sharing with each other.

Year 1/2

In 1/2 AT, we have loved our Resilience Project lessons with Martin. We have learnt a lot about practising gratitude and mindfulness. We have learnt that when we are practising mindfulness, we are taking care of our minds and helping ourselves relax. This term, we have begun body scans and belly breathing exercises. These help us to listen to our bodies and how we are feeling. Belly breathing allows us to feel more calm and ready to learn. 

Here are some reviews by the 1/2 students.

“I like the belly breathing because it helps me feel calm.”

“It makes me feel relaxed and sleepy.”

“The body scan helped me to feel zen.”

“The body scan made me feel very relaxed.”

Year 3/4

In grade 3/4 we have been focussing on the importance of 'mindful vs mind full'. Students have been using 5 minute meditation sessions to help reset themselves after busy learning sessions. This allows them to empty their minds and regain focus. 

Year 5

So far this term in wellbeing, the Year 5 students have continued with The Resilience Project, focusing on gratitude, empathy and mindfulness.

GRATITUDE - Every day before they go home, the Year 5’s take a moment to share one thing that went well for them that day. This is a habit that has been developed since the beginning of the year to instill the importance of gratitude. Additionally, every Friday, students write down the highlight of their week which they put in their gratitude jar. In Year 5 we are learning to appreciate and be thankful for what we have. We have also completed a number of activities which we reflect on and identify everyday things that we are grateful for.

EMPATHY - This year, the year 5 students have had many conversations around the importance of kindness in our lives. We have discussed how kindness is often contagious and the students have been challenged to perform random acts of kindness. The Year 5’s have learned about dopamine (the happy hormone) which is released in our bodies when someone shows kindness to us and when we show kindness to others. We have agreed that the world would be a better place if there was more kindness. We have also recognised the importance of being kinder to ourselves and have identified some positive things we can say to ourselves if we are ever feeling doubt or struggling.

MINDFULNESS - In Year 5, we have had a very busy term so far, so we have spent some time reflecting on how being busy sometimes impacts our ability to be present and to learn. There has been some discussion about how busy times can make us feel overwhelmed and like our brains are overflowing. The Year 5’s have worked on a range of strategies to overcome this feeling including brain dumps (where we write everything on the page that we are thinking or feeling in that moment), doing meditations, going on mindful nature walks, sketching in nature and learning how to take deep, calming, whole body breaths. There are many health and learning benefits of spending a short amount of time each day centring ourselves, clearing our minds and resetting so that we can learn better and be present in the moment.

THE RESILIENCE PROJECT 

By Analia and Zoe

This term we have been learning about ways to be mindful while working through our Resilience Project Journals.

Our most recent lesson was on mindfulness. In this lesson we looked at different tools such as breathing mindfully, listening carefully, learning from experiences, thinking about reactions to different situations and practising kindness and empathy. 

In other lessons we explored gratitude quotes and had a chance to research our favourite quotes. We wrote them in our journals and shared them with our class and had to explain why we picked the ones we did. 

We also explored 20 things we should say more often… our class really enjoyed this! We now have a weekly mood tracker and weekly habit tracker which helps us look back on our week and how we have been feeling and practising gratitude, empathy and mindfulness.

Our class enjoys doing this every Friday.