Leadership
Self-worth comes from one thing - thinking that you are worthy. -Wayne Dyer
The past month or so (we’ve had a few Fridays off due to fantastic holidays) the 3rd/4th graders have been reflecting and exercising creatively on self love and self esteem.
I shared an idea of them imagining themselves as energetic, bright and as needed the sun, that those around them need their love to shine. I had them put their names in the middle of a sheet of paper and like rays,(so they surrounded their names to create a burst), write down what is awesome about them. Things they’re good at, things they love, things that make them happy. They added reasons why they are good people and good friends. It was beautiful to see their pages fill up and to hear all the positive words they needed help spelling. “How do you spell awesome?” “How do you spell considerate?”
“Y-O-U!”
Another project we did was very similar but this time we used magazines to cut out words and in the center of the “sun” was the word “ME” and the students went on a word search through piles of magazines to cut out words or letters, to create their own words to paste around their “ME”.
Words like: Magical, beautiful, Earth, huggable, fried chicken, California . It was fun to get creative with how we describe ourselves and boost ourselves up. Jack found the word ‘magic’ and added an A and an L he found elsewhere to create his own. And he’s right, he is magical.
Self awareness is positive to practice as often as possible and I want to remind these kids how incredible they are and that it’s super cool to know it and express it!
❤️Inspiration❤️
We continue to start our mornings with movement, stretching, centering and sometimes a game. This class is also responsible for collecting the trash and recycling around campus. We take turns and with partners go to an assigned area on campus to pick up and to take trash and recycling to the bins by the rug room. Today we had some time to walk around our beautiful campus to pick up trash we found on the ground. We mostly found pieces of food wrappers, pieces of paper, old balloons by the archery range, an old hair tie, beat up birdies around the badminton courts, etc. We filled a whole bucket! The kids expressed reasons why we pick up trash: to help the animals, the environment and to make our surroundings looks safe and nice. So much gratitude for these kids!
The “I message”
Too often kids (and adults!) blame others for their feelings. We tend to blame others when we become upset. Perhaps it begins with a “you made me feel bad!” But in all reality, no one can make anyone else feel something. They might invite you to feel something but ultimately one has a choice.
One way to help one take responsibility of their feelings is to practice using the “I message” skill. ***and no, not like on our phones:)
I had the kids write down things that annoy them that other people do or that happens to them. They were welcome to exaggerate and to be humorous but to be specific!
”when my brother hits my head”
In order to express responsibility for your own feelings, it’s just a matter or wording your expression differently.
Let’s rephrase:
”I feel hurt when you hit my head and I wish you would use your words instead”
The formula is this: “I feel___ about _____ and I wish______.”
Kids were welcomed to share examples from there list and we took turns acting them out, rewording the complaint and even practiced the following recess when a few were disagreeing on the play ground.
“It’s not fair! He won’t let me dig there because he said he was using this spot last recess but he wasn’t here when I came over and.......”
”Can you use the ‘I message’?”
”I’m upset and confused about him yelling at me about not digging here and I wish he knew that this space is to be shared and when you’re not digging here then it should be ok.”
I hear you!!
Self regulation: Taking responsibility for ones feelings is an important social and life skill. We will visit this as often as possible and try our best to practice.
The little Library is stocked thanks to the families that donated books. We made posters to hang around campus asking for donations but word got to a few families before the posters went up! So we are good for now and we will save the posters to hang up when we are running low again. Thank you!