Grade 5

Now that you have completed your SEL (Social and emotional learning) we are ready to link it to our Art!

Let's start

Over the next 3 weeks, we are going to be creating a Mandala Art piece related to each SEL topic.

Week 1: Practice patterns for a Mandala.

Week 2: Start your Mandala.

Week 3: Go over the lines in your Mandala with black biro and colour it in.

You will need:

1. A4 paper

2. Pencil

3. Rubber

4. Internet for videos

What is a Mandala?

Mandalas are circles contained within a square and arranged into sections that are all organized around a single, central point.

Symbolism in Mandalas

Wheel with eight spokes: The circular nature of a wheel representation a perfect universe. The eight spokes represent free and independent thoughts.

Bells represent an openness and emptying of the mind and emotions to allow the entrance of wisdom, clarity and opportunity.

Triangle: When facing upward, triangles represent action and energy, and when facing downward, they represent creativity and the pursuit of knowledge.

Lotus flower: The symmetry of a lotus flower depicts balance and enlightenment.

Sun: A popular basis for modern mandala patterns, suns tend to represent the universe, life and energy.

The center is a dot. It is the starting point, the beginning of reflection

The dot is surrounded by lines and geometrical patterns that symbolize the universe.

The outer circle represents life.

What to do:

Now watch the video.

Choose an easy pattern to start with.

Now practice your patterns

Have fun and listen to soothing music.

After you have practiced your patterns upload to Seesaw (under ArtSEL).

12- 16 October

Part 1-SEL:

Emotional Management: Calming Down Strategies

Last week, we talked about the 1^st three steps for staying in control:

1. Notice. Recognise your physical and mental signs.

2. Pause. Use your signal.

3. Think twice. Use your brain. When you do step 3 and think twice, you may realise you’re still not calm and you can’t think clearly.

4. So our fourth step is ‘calm down if necessary. Use your calming down steps’.

There are 5 calming down steps.

1. Doing something physically active.

2. Doing something relaxing

3. Thinking about something else.

4. Using centered breathing.

5. Using positive self-talk.

For the 1^st two steps:

1. Doing something physically active and

2. Doing something relaxing.

Please note: When you are doing something physically active it needs to be a real workout to make a difference.

It is important to note that these two strategies (punching pillows and action – orientated video games involving rapidly responding to danger, aggression, biting, weapons etc.) increase aggression and increase adrenaline levels. Adrenaline is a substance that is released in the body of a person who is feeling a strong emotion (such as excitement, fear, or anger) and that causes the heart to beat faster and gives the person more energy.

For the 3^rd step:

Thinking about something else.

This distracts your mind from your strong emotion. You can be as simple as counting to 10 or counting backwards. You can also be thinking about something positive, such as a happy memory for your favourite place to be.

For the 4^th step.

Using centered breathing.

When we do centered breathing it slows our heart rate down and we feel calmer.

How to do centered breathing:

· Slowly breathe through your nose into the lower part of your lungs.

· Feel your stomach moving out when you breathe in.

· Slowly breathe out through your mouth.

Note: You can do this anywhere (desk, hallway and at home) and no one will notice.

For the 5^th step:

Using positive self-talk- You can say positive things to yourself in your head or aloud such as “you CAN do this” or “mistakes happen”. Positive self- talk tells our brain that everything is okay. Athletes use positive self-talk frequently. What kinds of things might they say? (Focus! Slow Down! Keep your eye on the ball!).

However, sometimes our self-talk actually increases our anger, frustration or fear. This is called negative self-talk because it keeps us feeling upset or angry, or even makes us angrier. Examples of negative self-talk are things like: “she makes me so furious”, “I can’t handle this” or “he did that on purpose”. When we say: “he did this on purpose”, it is often based on assumptions about someone’s action that may or may not be true. Usually, we can’t know exactly what people are thinking or why they are acting in a certain way. So it is important to consider lots of possibilities and not to assume you know what is true.

Positive self-talk can help you think clearly about what to do.

Which strategy do use when you have strong emotions? If you don’t have a strategy, which one could you use?

Now watch the video and practice deep breathing.

Now do the homework titled: Emotion Management: Calming down strategies.

Now that you have completed your SEL (Social and emotional learning) we are ready to link it to our Art!

12 - 16 October

You will need:

1. Grey lead

1. Rubber.

2. A compass or large cereal bowl to trace around for your circle.

3. Internet for videos

What to do:

Watch the video

Tips for drawing a Mandala:

Mark a center point on your sheet, and use a compass or bowl to draw circles of varying sizes (or a range of cereal bowls or circles). Fill the whole page. You can draw as many different sized circles as you want from the center point. Fold your paper in half 3 times. Draw 4 lines along the fold lines across the center point. Your circles are now divided into 8 quadrants. Look at image 1 on the left hand side.

Starting the Mandala

Start your drawing at the center. Use any simple shapes to start off. Draw more simple shapes to complete the inner circle. Now try some of the patterns you have practised or copy some of the ideas in the videos. Look at image 2a on the left hand side.

Building the Composition

Keep building up the drawing in the various circles. Use different shapes and patterns to build the composition.

Look at step 3 on the left hand side.

Keep adding shapes and patterns to your circle, depending on how many circles you drew in the initial stages.

Don’t worry about perfection. The main goal here is to relax, not to make something perfect.

After you have started your Mandala upload your work to Seesaw (under ArtSEL).

19- 23 October

Part 1-SEL:

Problem Solving

In ArtSEL, we are learning to solve a problem to help you avoid fighting, becoming aggressive or not fixing the problem. It’s called the action steps.

The 1^st part

Is to analyse. To analyse means thinking really carefully about the problem. When we analyse a situation it’s good to understand all people’s perspective in the problem. This is important to see how everyone is looking at the situation and it help us to understand each other.

When we look at different people’s perspectives it avoids making assumptions or misunderstanding why people did what they did.

The 2^nd part

Is to Brainstorm options. What are all the different ways to solve the problem? Let’s ask all the students that are involved in the problem. Make sure the solutions are safe and respectable.

The 3^rd part

Is to Consider each option. When you consider each option ask these questions.

What might happen if I do this?

Is it safe?

How might people feel about it?

It is important to think about how family, friends and other people who are important might feel about the options because you don’t want to damage relationships, get into trouble or disappoint people you care about.

The 4^th part

Is to Decide on and Do the best Option.

The 5^th part

Is to Evaluate whether it works or not.

This week try to use these techniques when you want to solve a problem.

Now that you have completed your SEL (Social and emotional learning) we are ready to link it to our Art!

Now do the homework titled: Problem solving.

19- 23 October

Part 2-ARt:

Problem Solving

This week in art we are going to solve the problem of choosing the right colours to colour in our mandala.

Think about choosing relaxing colors and how they affect your mood!

Research has found that choosing a soothing color helps calm your mind, slow down your heart rate, lower your blood pressure and reduce anxiety. Every colour has a different and unique emotional response in the viewer.

A colour's vibrancy needs to be considered as well. Vibrancy is how dark or light the colour is. The tricky part about vibrancy is that, just like each individual colour has its own properties, so does each shade of the same colour.

Brighter shades tend to be more energetic, while darker shades feel more relaxing.