This week in Primary 1, we celebrated Children’s Mental Health Week by focusing on the importance of feeling good, expressing our emotions and keeping our minds healthy and strong. We had an exciting week filled with activities that helped the children learn more about their emotions, how to manage them and how to connect with others in a positive way.
We began by revisiting our Zones of Regulation, which teaches the children how to identify and understand their emotions. We learned that every feeling is valid and it is OK to feel different things at different times. We reminded the children that there are always adults who will help them get back to the green zone—the calm, happy place where we can think clearly and make good decisions.
One of the ways we helped the children manage their emotions was through belly breathing exercises. By focusing on deep breaths, we learned how to calm our bodies and minds, especially when we’re feeling upset or overwhelmed.
In Forest School, we took our learning outdoors and focused on recognising emotions in ourselves and others. We had a special activity where the children watched a short clip from Inside Out, then each child selected a character to care for throughout the morning. Outside, the children worked together in teams to find 12 emotion cards that were hidden, and used natural materials to create representations of these emotions. We ended the day by drawing pictures of Joy and Anger, two of the characters from the film, and talked about how both emotions are important in our lives.
We also took some time to talk about the importance of keeping our minds healthy and strong. We played some circle games to work on our memory, including I Went to the Shop, where the children were able to remember up to 15 items!
To share the love, we got creative and made Valentine’s cards for our families. This was a fun way to spread some kindness and positivity and we also worked on our fine motor skills by passing a love heart around the circle using only a clothes peg! The children found it a bit tricky at first, but it was a great way to build strength in their fingers while symbolising the importance of spreading love and positivity in our class.
Finally, we focused on our faith and learned about St. Brigid and the incredible impact she made on others. The children made St. Brigid’s crosses as a way to reflect on how we can show kindness and care to those around us, just like St. Brigid did. We talked about how faith helps us to stay strong mentally and emotionally and how helping others can be a powerful way to feel good about ourselves.
Remember, every feeling is important and we’re all here to help each other stay in the green zone!
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