On Friday 10th February, as part of Children’s Mental Health Week, children and staff took part in ‘dress to express’, wearing their favourite colour or a unique outfit to express how they were feeling. Some were simple, some were elaborate, the school was full of bright colours and all the outfits were unique. Everyone was asked to donate £2 in support of Place2Be. Thank you to Madame Early for organising this initiative.
All of the year groups in Pre-Prep took part in Children’s Mental Health Week in different ways, but all connected by the common theme.
Reception used the story of ‘The Invisible String’ to explore Mental Health Week. We had a lovely carpet time discussing how we are connected to the people we love by an invisible string, even when we are far apart. If the children are sad or scared or happy and proud, they can remember the string that joins them with their loved one and that can help them to feel better. The children then chose who they would like to be joined with and we drew a fantastic ‘mind map’ of connections on the whiteboard. It was super that the children wanted to be connected to the friends who were part of the class. In arts and crafts, the children were fascinated when we drew invisible patterns on a heart with a wax candle and then revealed the lines using watercolour paints. The children had lots of fun recreating themselves using wool and fabric scraps after carefully checking their eye and hair colour using a mirror. We turned the figure into a ‘mobile of connections’ with everyone in Reception. A thoughtful and fun filled week of learning.
Year 1 focused on Colour Monsters to explore their feelings during the week. They all designed their own colour monsters and we think the end results are fantastic! Mrs Pickard brought in some emotions stones which prompted some super discussions among the Year 1 children.
Children’s Mental Health Week provoked a lot of thoughtful discussion in Year 2. We have looked at everyday activities and talked about how they can have a positive or negative effect on our mental health. The children have all taken part in some meditation activities and of course had plenty of time in the spring sunshine to consider what a powerful tool nature can be to support our mental health. Our English focus was a book called ‘Ruby’s Worry’ and children considered carefully how Ruby might be feeling at different parts of the story and why. We talked about how we would help Ruby if she was one of our friends and we gave her ideas on how to deal with her worry. The most useful piece of advice that the children gave to Ruby was to talk about the worry, no matter how big or small it might be. The children followed this up by making their own worry tools kits to keep in their trays at school in case they ever need some ‘ideas’ on what to do with a worry.
Thank you to all the wonderful Pre-Prep staff who supported the children in exploring the themes this week.