Teach Primary Issue 18.4

www.teachwire.net | 57 Kate Landsman has 20 years of teaching experience from EYFS to KS5 across the state, grammar and independent sector. She is the schools’ communications manager at The Happy Confident Company. body – developing the skill of interoception – will help them learn to identify how they are feeling and manage their behaviour accordingly. • Create helpful spaces in the classroom . As children become more familiar with their feelings and the different levels of energy they have, create areas in the classroom with activities that reflect them. Then, when children feel a certain way, they can identify this and choose activities that work with how they are feeling. This also helps children with unpleasant feelings learn how to sit with them, and transition out of them. • The power of journaling and self-reflection . For older children, allow a short period in the day, maybe when they return to the classroom after lunch, or before pick-up, for them to reflect on their day. Give them prompts to enable this: What feelings have they had that day? What challenges did they have? What was really great about the day? This develops self-awareness and emotional processing skills, which are critical elements of mental wellbeing. If you do this activity at the start of the day, it can set positive intentions for the day, too. As humans, we are predisposed to think negatively, and so allowing ourselves to consider the positives in our lives improves optimism and increases happiness and positivity. This is a great activity for you to do at the same time as the children – end your day feeling positive, albeit exhausted! Although a whole-school approach to SEL is preferable, by implementing some of the suggestions above just in your classroom you can make a great difference to your pupils. Make children’s wellbeing a priority and watch your pupils grow into resilient, self-aware, empathetic individuals who are equipped with the tools they need to be happy, successful adults. TP sharing feelings creates an emotionally open environment and allows children to see that it is ok to feel. Remember to remind them that no feeling is bad: it may be unpleasant, but all feelings are valid, and temporary. • Ask children how their feelings feel . What does their body feel like when they’re in a certain mood? Do they feel comfortable? Are they full of energy? Do their toes tingle? Does their tummy feel fluttery? Does their heart race? Do they feel hot and flushed, or shivery and want to curl up? Getting children to think about how their feelings manifest in their about feelings, it becomes a fundamental part of learning, and children become more emotionally literate and comfortable sharing their feelings. • Get talking about feelings! Make time at the start of the day, during snack time, or after lunch to ‘check in’ with how your pupils are feeling. Introduce them to more nuanced language; they will start with very simple descriptors like happy, sad, angry, fine, but encourage them to think about other ways of explaining their state of mind. You could create a word wall of all the new feelings they come up with, or get children to place a photo of themselves on the feeling they are experiencing. Don’t forget to tell them how you are feeling too – HE A L TH & WE L L BE I NG S P E C I A L “Remember to remind them that no feeling is bad” happyconfident.com