Students have continued their practice of understanding of how the amygdala and prefrontal cortex aid their regulation. Our amygdala is like a protective porcupine that keeps us safe from danger, but can be overly sensitive and go into protective mode when it’s not needed. Our prefrontal cortex is like a thoughtful turtle, always helping us to think before we act but can go into hiding when our amygdala’s protective porcupine is trying to keep us safe.

Students learn about this process through this story, linked to the left!

Pre-K through 3rd grade have learned about how to fill their emotional buckets as well as the impact they can make on other people’s buckets. When our emotional buckets are full, we feel regulated and resilient throughout the day and if our emotional bucket level is lower than we can feel quicker to dysregulation and more sensitive to hard things. 

We read Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud and talked about the power of bucket filling.

Other books about bucket filling are:

How Full Is Your Bucket? by Tom Rath – This book will introduce the idea of being a bucket filler to your students. It will teach your students why having a full bucket is so important. Students will begin to recognize which acts fill a bucket and which ones empty a bucket.

Bucket Filling A to Z by Carol McCloud – Another great bucket filler book that is filled with a simple way to be a bucket filler for each letter of the alphabet.

Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson – You can use Each Kindness to help teach your students that a single act of kindness can change the world for someone. In this story, your students will get to see that the main character does NOT act kindly to a new student. She eventually learns that she could have made a new friend if she had only been kind.

This week we are introducing our amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. These brain parts impact our memory, emotions, and how we manage ourselves when we are juggling something challenging. Our amygdala keeps us safe by introducing a Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn reflex when we are in danger; but sometimes our body gets confused and sends us into one of those modes when we are feeling dysregulated. We call this “flipping our lid”, where we lose control of our prefrontal cortex which is our thinking brain.  

Books PreK-2: 

• Some Days I Flip My Lid by Kellie Doyle Bailey and Illustrated by Hannah Bailey

• Some Nights I Flip My Lid by Kellie Doyle Bailey and Illustrated by Hannah Bailey

• You’ve Got Dragons by Kathryn Cave (on worry and anxiety)

• What are you so Grumpy About by Seymour Simon

Books for 3rd-5th:

• A Kids Book About Brain Health by Krystal Culler

• The Nervous System: A True Book by Christine Taylor-Bulter

• Mind Over Basketball: Coach Yourself to Handle Stress by Jane and Elizabeth Phillips-Hershey

Everyone:

• A Tour of the Brain

• The Hand-Brain Model

• What is my Lizard Brain?

• Brain and how it helps us- video

Resources that adults can guide children with on “flipping your lid”. 

Hello Families!! !Hola Familias!

My name is Consejera/e Amelia and I am the school social worker!

Next week will be our first social-emotional lesson (SEL) we will talk about what it looks like to be a strong student who shows respect to ourselves and others in the learning environment. We will discuss the school social worker role, what social emotional support students can access on campus, and how the resource team can partner with them. In future weeks, I will provide resources to you and your child’s teachers that could offer wraparound support to the themes we are discussing in our lessons. These could look like book recommendations, short video clips, or other tools.  I also have a broad library of books and other tools that I am happy to lend to families with a specific need or curiosity. 

Please check in with my newsletter weekly.

If you have any questions, please reach out @ avanderford@fuentenueva.org

Attitude matters! Children who experience optimism are generally in better health, are more successful in school, have healthy relationships, and are more resilient in managing life stressors.   When we use optimism we open our brain to dopamine and other brain neurotransmitters make us feel optimistic while managing our stress NT, cortisol. This allows us to feel mindful of stress inputs like worries and respond to these situations using our prefrontal cortex coping skills. This week we discuss optimism, worries, and how to cope when things become challenging. 

Spots

• Worry Song

• Worry Spot Readalong

• Wasted Worry Readalong

• Little Spot of Anxiety Readalong

• Optimism Spot

Pre-K - 1st Grade

• Ruby Finds a Worry

• Arthur clip: It’s Okay to Feel Worried

• Don't Feed the Worry Bug Readalong

2nd - 5th Grade

• Worry Video Social Story

• Anxiety Explained: SEL Clip

• Optimism Clip

For Adults:

• Somatic Symptoms of Anxiety/Worries

This week the Pre-K through 3rd grades will be receiving a lesson on Cooperation, which is the process of working together for the same goal.  They discuss how they can spot and plan for cooperation before practicing it with a game. 

Tk-2 Cooperation:

• Cooperation Video that explains the word, empathy, community, and examples we can show cooperation

• Big Bird Sesame Street sings about Cooperation 

• Sung readlong “Let’s Cooperate!” by Cantana Learning 

2-3 Cooperation

• Cooperation Video from Mr Saad Show 

• Video on Animal cooperation 

• Cooperating with Others: Tedx Talk Kids

This week we are discussing mindful tasting. The younger students will learn about how to be aware of what they are eating and learn about the different tastes (bitter, sweet, sour, umami, and salty). The older students will dive into how neurotransmitters such as dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin impact the foods that we like or dislike. They will combine their knowledge of neurotransmitters with their mindful tasting to create a metaphorical “Dopamine Menu” that functions similar to a coping skills list. 

Pre-K through 1st grade:

• Gregory, the Terrible Eater by MItchell Sharmat

• How does Your Tongue Work video

• How do Your Teeth Work video

• Everyone Bakes Bread by Norah Dooley

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

2nd-5th grade:

• Dopamine for Kids

• Happy Brain chemicals for kids

• Math Potatoes: Mind Stretching Brain Food by Greg Tang

Parents: 

Ted Talk on how food affects our brain

This week we will practice ways to use our sense of smell to feel more mindful and impact our mood. Second through Fifth grade will learn that our senses can impact neurotransmitters such as dopamine, the feel good brain chemical, and how to practice managing their dopamine levels through their senses.

Pre-K through 1st grade: Mindful Smelling

• Sense of Smell video

• We Smell with our Noses song

• Who Made That Smell readlong

• Pete the Cat and the mysterious smell readalong

2-5th grade: Dopamine and Mindful Smelling

• How Dopamine Affects learning video

• What is Dopamine video

All Students

Smelling affecting our memory

This week we will discuss wants and needs and how wants can feel like needs. We will correlate this topic to how individuals need contrasting things in life or may need to understand equity to acknowledge why people are supported differently than them. The fourth and fifth graders will learn about executive functioning; what it looks like for them and how they can train their EF skills. Executive functioning skills can be helpful for planning, making decisions, self control, attention, and organization.

Pre-K to 2nd Grade:

• Elmo learns about Wants vs Needs

• Basic Human Needs

• Needs and Wants- facts for kids

• Wants and Needs with Bert and Ernie

• Wants & Needs Song

• “But I Want it!” - readalong

• “Wants vs Needs vs Robots” Readalong

• “Lily Learns About Wants and Needs” Read-along

3rd- 5th Grade:

• Wants vs Needs  

• 5 Basic Human Needs

This week we will discuss perspective taking and empathy! Empathy can feel like walking in someone else’s shoes and can help with social awareness. Empathy is a great tool to care for our community space and each other!

Pre-K - Kinder:

• This is Not My Hat" Read a-Loud

• "They All Saw A Cat" Read a-loud

• Practicing Good Perspective Taking Skills Social Story for Kids

• Perspective Taking by RISE video

• The Smallest Girl in the smallest grade

2nd-5th:

• A Kids’ Book About Empathy

All:

• The Little Spot of Empathy Readalong

• Indifferent: A short film about Empathy

For parents:

• Teaching Perspective Taking

• Perspective Taking Resources for Parents

• Perspective Taking