11G mental health week 14/5/21

11G have been doing some fabulous work this week both in and out of the classroom, learning about and celebrating mental health awareness week and also Ramadan and Eid.

Using the book creator app on the school iPads we have been creating an ‘all about me’ blog in order to be able to tell others about ourselves, our physical attributes, our life style and our hobbies. This is a really useful self awareness tool to enable us to think about ourselves and to be able to pass that information onto others as we move onto the next step.

As part of our mental health awareness we spent lots of time outside appreciating the fresh air and the beauty of nature which is all around us.
We used our time outside on our extensive school field taking part in an exciting scavenger hunt searching for, and finding various items such as feathers, certain flowers, bugs and cobwebs which we then ticked off on our sheets.

We went on a walk around the track together and took part in deep breathing exercises, remembering to listen to the sound of our own breathing and then to listen to the lovely birdsong and the sound of the trees rustling gently in the breeze.
Back in class we then talked about how being outside in the fresh air surrounded by nature can soothe us and contribute to our well being and mental health.
We also discussed how other things can help us to feel calm and content and some of the ideas were to read a book, chat with a friend, go swimming and stroke a dog.

Today we wound up our mental health awareness week by all of us wearing something green and this time we took a walk down the dip which is at the far end of the school field and which is a beautiful tranquil place surrounded by trees and over flowing with nature of all kinds from the tiny wood lice to the flowering bushes.

We all had a go at rubbings where we each took a piece of paper and a wax crayon and found various things to rub onto the paper including the outline of a leaf and the bark of a tree.
We sat in a circle in one of our forest schools areas and enjoyed a biscuit and juice before laying yoga mats onto the leafy floor and lying down as we listened to the sounds of the trees and the children playing in the playground. It was very peaceful and we all felt that our mental health had benefited from the ten minutes of taking time out.

Back in class we all had a great time dancing to some music, we followed the cha cha slide moves and danced along to Frozen...another great way to improve our mental health.

For the children who are on school meals we had a picnic lunch, lots of yummy sandwiches, biscuits and crisps and we joined in with the rest of the class who had brought their own lunches around tables to enjoy our food and to be able to have conversations which we all enjoyed.

After lunch had been cleared away we all felt very chilled and relaxed so we simply put some mindfulness music on and coloured in sheets while we listened to the wonderful sounds of waterfalls and bird song before finally rousing ourselves enough to take part in our online celebration assembly where Lucas was awarded star of the week for fabulous contributions to all of our class discussions with well thought out answers. Well done Lucas.

This week we have also been learning about the Muslim religious festival of Ramadan and Eid. We watched a really interesting power point about a Muslim family preparing for Eid and we learnt that during Ramadan Muslims fast throughout the daylight hours in order to devote themselves to their faith and they believe it brings them closer to Allah. We also learnt that children under the age of fourteen do not need to fast as they are considered too young to go without food.

We also learnt lots about how Muslims celebrate Eid which comes at the end of Ramadan and that the word Eid literally means feast.
Muslims spend time leaning, cooking and baking lots of delicious food to have during a huge celebratory feast and quite often fireworks are set off at the end of the day.

We took this opportunity to find out more about the kind of food that Muslims like to eat during the Eid celebration and then we made our very own Eid biscuits using flour, butter and sugar. We rolled them out before baking them . They looked and smelt delicious and when they had finally cooled down we found that they tasted really yummy.

We also took part in some science experiments this week to look at different types of energy. We had lots of fun placing a coin underneath a clear vase then pouring water into the vase. To our surprise the coin seemed to disappear. Mrs Powell explained that it was to do with the way the light bends but to us it certainly did look like a magic trick.

We tried lots of different types of energy, we switched the lights on and off, turned a torch on then off and even watched a plastic solar flower move backwards and forwards in the sunlight.
Once we had tried all of the different types of energy we then did some comprehension sheets to show our understanding of the subject as well as some cutting and sticking.

So, a very busy week where we have concentrated on our own, and others mental health and also learnt about a different faith.

Take care everyone and have a lovely relaxed weekend. Ms Lea. X