Kategoria: Stay Calm

Teachers’ board

As the common product of the 3 years long project, whose aim was teaching how to create and maintain good habits, how to adopt new ways of life, manage our stress level and make our schools better, more approachable and pleasant places We decided to share the resources which were made throughout the duration of the project. This is a collection of presentations, worksheets, quizzes and other resources. Obviously, the building itself plays the essential role, but it is the teacher, his or her attitude, creativity and his or her stance on how to approach students, is the vital element of the process of learning. Here, all the collected materials can be used to make lessons more inspiring and interesting.

The reasons for sharing the collection: https://padlet.com/tambelli_sylwia/rerhg164zt0ktt65

  • providing the ready to use material for thinking, writing, talking, and problem solving 
  • stimulating critical thinking
  • developing key competences in foreign languages
  • providing the context for teaching about adopting healthy habits
  • exchanging good practices
  • providing material for game based learning
  • encouraging open communication, curiosity and exploration.

Wellness and nature

Exposure to nature gives us a great number of benefits, such as improved attention, lowering stress, better mood and last, but not least, it may turn out preventing and treating certain vision ailments as we flex eyes’ muscles trying to focus on objects off in the distance. Exposure to UVB rays triggers the release of dopamine and circulates vitamin D in the body. All these processes help to preserve good health and a positive attitude.

To understand a connection between nature and our well-being and realize our responsibility to protect and sustain the Earth, our students took part in classes during which they discussed the habits they can adopt to save the Earth. They created cartoon strips and illustrated their own obligations to change their habits. We organized also going out to adventure parks and the beach in order to promote active ways of spending free time outside.

How to Practice Mindfulness

During mobility C3 students were taught how to practice mindfulness and encouraged to do it. They were invited to listen to a song and read its lyrics as a mindful moment. After that they made two groups and danced with the orientation of a Physical Education Teacher, who is an expert in mindful activities. Students had the opportunity to learn some strategies for
relaxing, making specific noises and movements. They also learned how to paint Mandalas, as a relaxing technic, and created a colourful panel.

The objectives of these activities:

  • improving a sense of well-being
  • learning how to focus your attention
  • being more able to observe one’s own thoughts, emotions and physical sensations
  • understanding the causes of the stress and learning how to be able to manage, stress, anxiety and low mood
  • benefitting from informal mindfulness practices like mindful colouring, walking and listening

Haiku poems

During the mobility C3, hosted by Agrupamento de Escolas de Amares in Portugal,as a reflexive activity, in order to develop their creativity and communication in the language of the project, the students created Haikus, that is, small poems, based on a Japanese technique, related to well-being and nature, creating thematic posters using the web tool 2.0 „Canva”. These posters were printed and exhibited in the school by the end of the
activity.

The objectives of the activity:

  • improving language skills. The process of writing poetry can build vocabulary. … 
  • expanding vocabulary and world views
  • sparking creative thinking.
  • building self-awareness
  • expressing emotions
  • developing sensitivity
  • reflecting on one’s experiences
  • developing mindfulness skills

Good manners – make life easier for others

Life becomes less stressful if you know the rules of how to deal with some situations in different places. To understand how important some informal regulations are we made a list of all the places where they are especially significant. They took part in a quiz about customs trying to guess where the rules are obeyed, afterwards we discussed the differences between mustn’t and shouldn’t or have to and should and after that the students in groups made their own lists of rules for different places in which one should be careful and know how to act. Next, they designed their own leaflets with rules which should be followed in some chosen by them places. The younger students celebrated ‚Good Manners Day. They studied some typical situations and decided if the person presented behaves well or badly. Next, they created images depicting examples of good and bad behaviour.

The objectives of the activities:

  • making students believe that positive behaviour is a life skill and that should be taught
  • spreading awareness of the impact of some rules on our well -being and self confidence
  • understanding that everyone should respect other people’s rights and privacy
  • naming the rules of proper and not so proper conduct
  • learning how to behave in a considerate way 
  • realizing that in case you don’t know how to behave you should behave decently, not hurting anyone.

That’s me!

A sense of individuality and a sense of self-esteem are both the most determining factors in how children feel, think, behave, and motivate themselves in the world. If children believe in themselves and they are able to recognize their skills they can take positive actions on their own behalf and approach life obstacles as challenges to accept and cope with. To learn how to manage these skills, during English classes and form periods 4th Grade children, using visual materials talked about their skills and competences. After that they prepared a survey about abilities and carried it out asking other pupils what they can do. They calculated the results and presented them on graphs. Afterwards they depicted the features characteristic for them.

The objectives of the activities:

  • being able to name sport activities and hobbies
  • working in a team, sharing duties
  • improving their math skills
  • taking the time for personal reflection
  • perceiving oneself as an individual being
  • boosting a sense of children’s self-esteem
  • giving them an opportunity for learning in a different way
  • encouraging them to speak about their abilities and competences

Emotion Awareness Day

Emotion Awareness Day served us as a good opportunity to discuss the feelings we all go through. The youngest children named the basic emotions, they decided which of them are positive and which are the negative ones, they tried to establish what makes us recognize other people’s feelings. During watching cartoons we named emotions, predicted them and finally they tried to present some basic feelings drawing human faces. Older students took part in similar activities. They studied photos of some situations and named the emotions of people involved, while learning new vocabulary they also tried to describe possible situations which may cause these feelings. They also tried to establish and then rate conditions which usually cause anger. A privacy breach definitely got to the top.

The objectives of the activities:

  • ability to name emotions
  • understanding that emotions are usually short-term
  • recognizing one’s own way of coping with anger
  • ability to define the common causes of emotions
  • ability to recognize other people’s feelings in their body language, face expressions, tone
  • realizing one’s needs for safety, closeness and acceptance 
  • understanding that in most cases we can manage our aroused emotions are calmed and they can be proceed in a developmental process.

What makes you relaxed?

School, school, after-SCHOOL activities, before SCHOOL activities. A vicious circle of school-related terms. What makes you feel relaxed? What can let you forget about the troubles, expectations, duties and obligations? Everyone has got their own ways to cope with daily problems. Children started from brain-storming for all the ideas of passing free time. They began from the conventional ones, but afterwards more specific pastimes appeared on the common mind map. After the discussion and learning some new vocabulary they made their own mind maps on posters in groups and afterwards, using https://wordart.com the children made their own, individual lists of things which make them not feeling worried and then created the word clouds in pictures symbolizing leisure for them.

The objectives of the activity:

  • introducing new vocabulary, related to pastimes and interests
  • recognizing the difference between obligations and leisure time
  • realizing when you have too much stress and you need to relax
  • finding common activities which make you and your friends relaxed
  • recognizing one’s own needs and one’s own individuality

World Health Day 2022

It is now 6 years since we started celebrating the World Health Day making it a School Health Week, because for a few days we try to draw attention of to whole school community to health issues. During the week various activities are performed, all of them aimed at:

  • promoting health
  • developing students’ ability to recognize disturbing symptoms
  • encouraging students to adopt regular sport activities
  • emphasizing on good eating habits 
  • sensitizing students on realizing the connection between physical and mental health
  • spreading awareness of the role of rest and relax in everybody’s life

To achieve these objectives we organized:

  • a lecture about functioning of the brain, delivered by a psychologist Joanna Klimaszewska
  • a lecture about nutrients, delivered by a dietetician, Aneta Kałużna
  • how ADHD brains function – a lecture delivered by a psychologist, Martyna Domańska
  • how to care for one’s body when you grow up, a lecture delivered by Anna Walentukiewicz 
  • first aid workshops delivered by Dorota Rycharska
  • grab a snack – cookery workshops
  • how to sleep well – workshops conducted by a psychologist Marcin Ciepliński
  • active dancing breaks
  • contests, tournaments, games, escape rooms, presentations.

Yoga for everyone

Learning the basic yoga rules in two hours’ time seems impossible and it is impossible as it usually takes years. However, it is good to try, understand what it is about and find out what benefits of yoga are:

  • better flexibility
  • gaining peace of mind
  • building strength of muscles
  • improving one’s posture
  • preventing spine diseases
  • increasing heart rate and blood flow
  • helping you to concentrate and focus your attention
  • improving consciousness

The students, taking part in a short mobility in Alquerias in Spain took part in yoga workshops during which they learned some simplified yoga poses for beginners and they were encouraged how and why they can do it on their own.