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We kicked off our SVDP Wellbeing Week with Mindful Monday. In each class the children discussed what 'Mental Health' means and talked about how we can 'be kind to our minds' by getting enough sleep, eating 'good mood' food, exercising, connecting with our friends and family, using kind 'self-talk', practising gratitude and mindfulness and developing healthy habits. We listened to Ms Finn reading a lovely story called 'It's Always There' by Louise Shanagher. We learned the '5 for 5' breathing technique with one of our amazing parent volunteers, Joe. We went outside to use what we had learned from Joe and use our five senses to become more mindful and present in nature. We had lots of fun on Mindful Monday! If you would like to watch any of the videos from Mindful Monday again at home, you can find them below.
We realised just how many things we have to be thankful for on Thankful Tuesday. Ms Geraghty taught us about Gratitude and showed us how to make a gratitude tree for our classroom or at home. We had lots of fun doing exercise with the Mulqueen family in their fitness class. We shared three things that we are grateful for with our friends and teacher. We also listened to the Thankful Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeSdQmO51Ps
For a Wellbeing Week Homework Activity we can make Worry Monster boxes at home. Any time we have a worry we can feed it to our Worry Monster and this will help make our worries go away. We enjoyed all the fun activities for Thankful Tuesday and we feel very grateful for all the wonderful people and things in our lives.
We all had so much fun on Well-being Wednesday! We learned a really lovely Sun Salutation with Ms Finn and some classes went outdoors to try it on the grass. We listened to Ms Finn reading the next story in the 'Mindfully Me' series, called 'Where is Happy'. We talked about what makes us happy to be us. The story reminded us that we are all special, unique and important. We learned how to do Star Breathing and we played a really fun Affirmation game with our amazing parent volunteer, Niamh. Some of our First Class pupils created some wonderful Well-being acrostic poems.
Ms Finn showed us how to do a really fun Sun Salutation. We tried it in our classrooms first and then went outside to try it on the grass. You can try it at home by following the steps below or watching the video.
To start stand with your feet close together. Put your hands together in front of chest. Take a big, deep breath in through your nose and breathe out through your mouth. Try that three times.
Step 1: Move hands around in a big circle in the air. ‘I make a circle, nice and round’.
Step 2: March on the spot. ‘I stamp my feet down on the ground’.
Step 3: Bend over from the middle and walk hands out in front. Stop with bottom up. ‘I bend and walk my hands, then stop.’
Step 3: ‘Now I’m a triangle with my bottom on the top.’
Step 4: Come down onto all fours on knees. ‘Now I’m a lion, big and strong.’
Step 5: ROAR!
Step 6: Lift one hand and the opposite leg. Then swap sides. ‘Now I stretch, lean and long’. ‘Other side’.
Step 7: Crouch into a ball and cover head. ‘Now I hide’. Count 1,2,3,4.
Step 8: Come up onto knees and wave hands. ‘Here I am!’
Step 9: Stand up. Spin arms around and be silly. Then put hands together again in front of chest. ‘Here I am, back at the start.’
One of our fabulous parent volunteers, Niamh, played an amazing affirmation game with us called 'Written in the Stars'. We had so much fun playing this magical game and choosing our favourite stars to see what was written in the stars for each of us! We received one of three lovely messages; 'I am a Brilliant Star', 'I am a Friendly Star' or 'I am a Valuable Star'. Niamh then taught us how to do some wonderful 'Star Breathing'. We imagined that we were breathing in peace to our heart and then breathing out peace into the world. Thank you so much Niamh for sharing your incredible skills with us! To play 'Written in the Stars' or practise your star breathing again, watch Niamh's video by following the link below:
We all had an absolutely TERRIFIC Thriving Thursday! The sun was shining brightly for all the pupils in our school as we danced our socks off in our rainbow colours for Pieta House! The children have been practising really hard in class and at home learning dance routines to 'YMCA', 'Dynamite', 'The Ketchup Song' and 'Can't Stop The Feeling'. Check out the wonderful photos and videos of our day here:
Huge thanks to the amazing Ms Coughlan for teaching us the super dances and leading us on the day, you are a superstar! We also listened to Ms Finn read the third story in the 'Mindfully Me' series, 'Look Who's Here'. We spent some relaxing time in the Outdoor classroom doing some mindful colouring. The brilliant Brennan family showed us how to make the most beautiful Wellness box for our classrooms and to keep at home. We are all truly thriving after so many lovely activities. :-)
