This week we have been sharing why we think it is important to talk about our mental health. Although it is important to do this EVERY week, this awareness week makes sure we remember to check in on our friends and family and to take some time to think about the things that make us feel happy, safe and content.
What makes us happy in Year 5?
“Spending time with my friends and playing football with them.”
“Seeing my teachers and friends at school.”
“playing Times Tables Rock Stars with everyone in our class even though we’re at home.”
How do you feel about being at home whilst you’re learning?
“I miss my friends.”
“We’re lucky to still be learning online.”
“It’s boring doing the same things every day and not going to see our friends.”
Although this is a really challenging time for us all, it’s important to remember that everyone feels bored or lonely or upset sometimes, and it’s really good to talk to someone about it. Even though lots of us are learning from home, we can always contact our school and our teachers if we need help with anything.
Today (Wednesday) we have also worn our own clothes to school and at home to represent emotions. Some of us are wearing colours which show joy, happiness and peace (yellows, oranges, white, pale blue). Others are wearing lots of different colours to show that they have a lot of different emotions all at the same time. This has been a great way to open up a discussion with our friends, teachers and families about how we feel and what makes us feel that way.
We’ve also created some posters in class for different emotions, showing what makes us feel that way and how we can handle these emotions. If you’d like some ideas on how to look after your mental health and how to deal with tough emotions, take a look at the list we’ve created as a class:
- listen to music (this could be calm, relaxing music or something more up-beat and exciting to raise your mood or to burn off some frustration by dancing)
- Make a lava lamp (mixing oil, water and food colouring in a plastic bottle) – we can look at this and focus on the movement of the bubbles to help us to focus our thought.
- Eating regular, nutritious meals.
- Exercise (playing in the garden, star jumps in the living room, anything you can!)
- Not using devices too often. This can make it difficult to sleep and means that sometimes we’re focussing too much on other people’s lives and not our own. It can also affect our social and communication skills).
- Get plenty of sleep.
- Do things we enjoy – making things, reading books, walking the dog, playing board games.
Here’s a website with some more helpful ideas:
https://www.place2be.org.uk/our-services/services-for-schools/mental-health-resources-for-schools/coronavirus-wellbeing-activity-ideas-for-schools/
It’s also very important to make sure we take the time to listen to others and try to understand how they feel. One very important word we remind ourselves of regularly in Year 5 is ’empathy.’ This mean that we not only know how someone feels, but we put ourselves in their shoes and really understand how they feel. This is our target over the next few weeks, we hope you’ll all join us in this.
