A new video is HERE! Yay! One of my favorite subjects to teach my students is the upstairs and downstairs brain. This concept is introduced in the book The Whole Brain Child, and it’s just an easy and fun way to explain the function of our brain to young kids.
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Is there anything better than when something just “clicks” for one of your students? That moment when you can see the lightbulb go off and true understanding of a concept takes place…it’s the best. That happened this week and here’s the short and sweet on how it went:
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I hope this post finds all of you cozy and warm in your homes! It’s currently a balmy ZERO degrees here in Indiana. (Don’t even get me started on the snow and wind chill!) So, I’m naturally sitting by the fire with a cup of coffee. What better time to formally introduce all of you to the ANT Buddies than right now?!
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I hope you all have enjoyed teaching your students about how their thoughts, feelings and behaviors are connected using The Triangle video! As I was going through this with my students, one thing became very evident. Many of the negative thoughts that students were identiying were distorted, and NOT helpful AT ALL!
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I have an increasing number of students that are requesting items to have at home for when they feel overwhelmed. I have been putting together calming kits for them, and I will often include a paper version of a finger labyrinth to help with focus and calm.
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Our brains are constantly thinking. Given any situation, at any point in the day, we’re going to be analyzing what is going on around us. When a problem arises, both big and small, taking charge of our thoughts can drastically improve the outcome. Learning how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are connectd is a major step in this process!
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As many of you know by now, I have been working with an increasing number of students dealing with anxiety. They have all really enjoyed the What is Anxiety video, but even after watching the video, I have found myself explaining a few things in more detail. So… I made this sheet/activity to help my students understand the difference between real (the owl) vs. perceived (bear or fox) threats.
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How annoying is it for you when you’re really upset and someone says, “Don’t worry, everything will be fine,”? I don’t know about you, but for me, this tends to just make me feel worse because everything doesn’t feel fine in that moment. Our students are the same way. Simply dismissing their anxiety or worry often just spirals them. If everything was fine for them, then they wouldn’t have the big feelings in the first place.
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Anxiety is a BIG feeling with MANY feelings wrapped up inside, and it often manifests itself in so many ways from child to child. There are an increasing number of students in my building that are experiencing some symptoms of anxiety on a day-to-day basis. I found myself on repeat discussing what anxiety is and how it works, and thus, this video was created!
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Schools play a huge and instrumental role in creating a strong support network for students. My teachers are great at building relationships with kids. It is seriously one of the things that they’re best at! Because of this, my students typically have a pretty strong support network in place during their school day. However, I find that some of my students truly do not recognize all of the supportive people that surround them until I point it out.
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