This week we will be continuing with the topic of Autumn and planting bulbs, as well as focussing on our emotional well-being. At the pre-school age, children are usually learning a lot about emotional self-regulation, often needing support to handle their emotions; we as adults can help by doing things such as naming their emotions for them e.g. ‘I can see that you’re feeling upset/ angry/ frustrated by what’s happened’, and coming up with possible solutions e.g. ‘maybe taking some deep breaths would help you to feel better’ / ‘do you think you’d like a hug?’; then at a later stage when the child is familiar with using strategies to calm themselves, ask them to choose their own self-regulation strategy, e.g. ‘what do you think would make you feel better?’. So at the start of the year, we talk about emotions, how they make us feel, and start to use various props in the classroom such as an emotions wheel (children can turn the arrow on the wheel to point to the image of the emotion that they’re feeling). We will be focussing on relaxation techniques like yoga, and deep breathing, and expression of emotions through using puppets.

During the week we will be making a worry box with each of the classes – this is a box that we decorate together, and if any of the children are worried about something, we write it down on a piece of paper and put it into the box until the child decides that they’re not worried about it anymore, whereupon they can tear it up and put it in the recycling bin! This gives a very real representation to the children that worries are temporary things, which come and go, so it can help to put anxieties they may have to rest. And at the end of the week we will plant daffodil bulbs; gardening is a very relaxing and grounding activity that children really love to take part in. Lastly, we will also be doing an experiment to demonstrate heavy vs light, discovering which object falls faster due to its weight, & looking at weighing scales – showing that just because something is big it might not necessarily be heavier than a smaller object, e.g. a large leaf is lighter than a conker!

If You’re Happy & You Know It (using LÁMH)

If you’re happy & you know it clap your hands,
If you’re happy & you know it clap your hands,
If you’re happy & you know it & you really want to show it –
If you’re happy & you know it clap your hands!

If you’re sad & you know it wipe your tears…
If you’re angry & you know it stamp your feet…
If you’re scared & you know it say ‘oh no’…
If you’re happy & you know it shout ‘hooray’!!…