Welcome to Our Wellbeing page
While we are homelearning will be posting wellbeing, mindfulness, relaxation, yoga and growth mindset activities here for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 children as well as information and links to resources and websites that will help you to support the wellbeing of your children with holistic activities.
Mindfulness
Developing a time to be mindful together each day increases a sense of wellbeing by helping us notice what is happening inside us and around us in a way that reconnects us to a deeper sense of relaxation and friendly kindness. It also helps us to develop focus, concentration and also resilience as we develop our capacity to be with our feelings in a kind, fun and self -supporting way.
It also gives us a time to be playful and creative in our busy lives and it can be an antidote to spending times on screens as it reminds us that it feels good to be in our bodies, to engage all of our senses and relax! Mindfull games can be very simple and are a natural part of how we all connect and slow things down for ourselves and our children
Examples of simple mindfulness games for all ages
Blowing bubbles. Have your kids focus on taking in a deep, slow breath, and exhaling steadily to fill the bubble. Encourage them to pay close attention to the bubbles as they form, detach, and pop or float away.
Playing with balloons. Tell your kids that the aim of this game is to keep the balloon off the ground - but have them move slowly and gently. You can tell them to pretend the balloon is very fragile if that helps.
Texture bag. Place several small, interestingly shaped or textured objects in a bag. Have each child reach in and touch an object, one at a time, and describe what they are touching. Make sure they don’t take the object out of the bag, encouraging them to use only their sense of touch to explore the object.
Mindful drawing
Another great way to practice mindfulness. Drawing mindfully is done by focusing your attention on what you are doing. While drawing you slow down and pay attention to the activity in front of you.
When out for your daily walk with your children – prepare a piece of paper with 4 colour felt tip circles drawn on - can they find something Red. Green. Blue and Yellow on their walk?– can they collect and draw these things for you when they get home?
Key Stage 1
Ideas for Mindfulness Activities, Resource links and websites
Penny Walk (mindful movement)
Number of Players: 1+
Materials: Pennies
Recommended Ages: 4 and up
How to Play: Give each child a penny. Instruct them to walk while balancing the penny on their bare feet or shoes. This is harder than it sounds and is good practice in dealing with frustration. If one coin becomes easy, then try two coins.
See the Rainbow (five senses, meditation)
Number of Players: 1+
Materials: None
Recommended Ages: 4 and up
How to Play: This is a meditation that allows the children to keep their eyes open. Ask them to look all around the room and notice all of the red things. Next, say a different color and tell the students to notice all the things that color. (Do this silently, without sharing what they see.) Continue changing the color until you have made it through the rainbow.
Woodland Trust
The Woodland Trust have added 10 nature activities for families to try whilst at home - follow this link to the site and press 'Get Inspired' -
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2020/03/nature-detectives/
Some Lovely Cartoons by Gruffalo creators Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler about staying at home during this time of home learning. Maybe you will be inspired to create your own! Please send them in so your teachers can see them and put them on your class page.
Cosmic Yoga
Fun Yoga and Mindfulness using stories, games and familiar characters
Healthy screen time for 21st Centrury Kids!
https://www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga
A Fun chart from the National Trust showing 50 things to do to enjoy your experience of nature
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/50-things-to-do
Press here for a link to UNICEF's series of books for helping young children to make sense of disasters including COVID 19
https://www.cope-disaster-champions.com/disaster-book-series/
Key Stage 2
Ideas For Mindfulness activities, Wellbeing and relaxation resources and Websites
Press on links to access resources below -
Mindful colouring sheets and explanation
https://www.betweensessions.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/mindfulness-coloring-book-4_25-16.pdf
Explore and discover your strengths
https://youngminds.org.uk/media/3554/how-many-positives-360-activity.pdf
Think about what positive things you have done for your own well-being this week with your family and friends.
https://youngminds.org.uk/resources/school-resources/wellbeing-bingo/
Write a letter about what is going on for you emotionally and what will help
https://youngminds.org.uk/media/2933/a-letter-about-how-i-m-feeling.pdf
Fun Drawing Lessons
Children's Author Rob Biddulph has posted 12 ten minute drawing lessons on his website to teach children to draw their own animal characters from scratch. Follow the link below to find the videos -
http://www.robbiddulph.com/draw-with-rob
Self Care
Press on the link to find a chart of ideas that can help us to look after our own mental health
https://www.annafreud.org/on-my-mind/self-care/
Beano Comics and Young Minds Have created Comic Strip stories for under 1's to support thier mental wellbeing on topics such as SAT's stress, first phones, selfie safety and starting secondary school.
https://youngminds.org.uk/get-involved/campaign-with-us/beano-and-youngminds/
A Chart of Activities for Year 6 Children to do to help them get ready for Year 7 and to reflect on their lives.