Social Emotional Learning

5/14/2021

Suggested activities can be repeated and you can choose what to enjoy at any time during the week.

I hope you enjoy them!

Mindfulness

Mindfulness exercises can be done at any time! I generally guide the students in the beginning and sometimes at the end of each lesson. These brain based exercises can help bodies and brains remain calm and focused. This year's series of mindfulness exercises largely came from a collection titled "Little Renegades."

In May, our mindfulness exercise is Pig Belly Breaths or mindful breathing. Place both hands on your belly. Sit still and tall and inhale through your nose. Then exhale through your mouth. What happens to your hands as you breath in and out? See if you can let thoughts rise and fall with the breath. Repeat three times.

Intentional breathing gives us the ability to anchor the mind in the present moment and deal with life's challenges in a focus, calm, assertive way. This helps us understand that our breath can be the doorway into a more positive mindset that allows us to be fully present and accept feelings as they come and go. From Little Renegades, LLC

You can use this Diary Card, if you like, to keep track of the strategies your child uses to calm their bodies and brain. These are all of the strategies we've learned and practiced this year. They may not remember all of them but if they remember a small number, those tools may come in handy sometime!

Calm Down Breathing from The Chaos and the Clutter Here are some quick strategies to help your child calm down when they become stressed or upset.

I Can Do Hard Things Poster for a little reminder around the house and self-pep-talk! Print and have your child color this poster for times when their confidence is low.

Book Club

Join In and Play, Cheri J. Meiners is an oldie but goodie! Some groups have read this title and are talking about what it means to be kind, be an "includer" and what to do if someone is unkind. We will be reviewing "Kelso's Problem Solving Wheel" as part of this discussion next week.

What to Do When You Worry Too Much by Dawn Huebner, Ph.D. is a favorite interactive workbook to help students understand their worries and strategies to help overcome them. There are several chapters and we will be doing some of the worksheets during Social Group in most of our classes. I recommend watching one or two chapters at a time to get the most out of this title.

Storm Starters, From Super Power Speech A great practice, though counter intuitive, is to talk about the situations or events that upset us when we are calm. That gives our "Wise Owl" part of the brain a chance to think about what to do when it happens before it happens. Have your child identify what he or she finds upsetting and causes them to "Flip a Lid." Then list strategies or "Tools" he or she can use to help in those situations. (This also provides insight on how to coach your child when they hit a rough patch.)

For those students who have not heard Flipping A Lid , we will be covering this in the next couple of weeks. If you haven't seen this or would like to review it again, this is a very clearly laid out title explaining what happens in your brain when we get upset.

Calming Cards, From Super Power Speech In some Social Groups, the students created their own books of "Calming Cards" to bring home. The students have been exposed to some of the strategies, others they can learn about with your help (you can probably google them!)

In When My Worries Get Too Big by Brenda Smith Myles, Ph.D. we will start to talk more about what we can do when we have bigger feelings and or problems. It is OK to have big feelings. And, it is OK to experience big feelings when we have small problems. At the same time, young children are still learning how to figure out the expected reaction to problems based on the size of the problem even if the problem comes with big feelings. There is a scale at the end of the book that provides a way to talk about the big feelings. In addition, the author shares some useful and easy worksheets and strategies to help navigate big feelings as well.

A Froggy Fable, by John Lechner is a favorite story about a character who does not like change, until....read on and find out how he learns! (Feel free to dialog with your child about ALL of the changes they handled this past year and changes that they can look forward to...even if a little nervous!)

Zen Den

How to Make Good Choices What you say and what you do can make others have thoughts and feelings about you. Thinking about the impact your choice has on others is part of learning "Social Thinking." Sneak preview: Stop, take a deep breath and then let your Wise Owl help you figure out the best choice!

Recreational SEL

How are Magnets Made? Mystery Science does it again with a fun and engaging clip! They also show you how you can make a magnet!

Here are a set of cute affirmation posters for coloring. These are common phrases or comments used for "self-talk" another way to encourage one's self as kids navigate rough patches. Enjoy!

Parent's Corner

Mindfulness Activities for Children and Teens from Make Social Emotional Learning Stick is a great poster and easy reference of simple and fun ways to incorporate mindfulness into family life.