What a wonderful day we had celebrating GBWD. As many of you know, our focus in Infants is ensuring our children are happy, healthy and safe and we place great emphasis on Emotional Education knowing that the heart and the brain work in unison and children need security in order to learn. GBWD is everyday in Discovery House but on Thursday 30th September we did lots of extra special activities!
Children in Nursery and Reception were introduced to the ´Peace Rose´. One of the most beautiful parts of Montessori education and living is that it teaches the child to be independent. So of course we want to also extend that to their relationships with others and how to resolve conflicts without violence. In a Montessori classroom, you would most likely find a peace table with two chairs and a peace rose on it. This is a space that is set aside specifically for two children to use when they are arguing about something, or for one child to use when she is just feeling a bit overwhelmed by her emotions and needs to take a break. The Peace Rose is used throughout infants for conflict resolution.
Our youngest children also enjoyed role playing with emotions, naming the emotions and recognising how they feel when they experience each emotion.
In Year 1 children worked with the well known and loved story ´The Colour Monster´ connecting with themselves and their emotions. They made simple, child friendly versions of the emotion wheel in order to help them to identify and name their feelings. They also had great fun painting, sticking and gluing to make big and small monsters!
In Year 2 the children made a ´Bridge of Empathy´, a bridge that leads from Madrid to Palma. The children were especially touched to learn about the school that has been affected by the volcanic eruptions and children being unable to go to school.
Children learnt about a young man who was a refugee and came to the UK and adapted to a life very different from what he was used to. They connected this to how people from other cultures enrich our own culture and in particular how Flamenco dancing emerged. Thank you to Year 13 who came to teach us how to dance Flamenco! Year 2 also learnt about Galicia and the Celts the mystery of the Basque country. They even learnt a little Euskera too!
En Español trabajamos la empatía con el cuento “Ponte en mi lugar” y después hablamos de diferentes formas en las que podemos conectar con las personas; mediante las palabras, la mirada…
Explicamos que todos tenemos cosas positivas y les enseñamos la importancia de ver lo positivo, las cualidades de los demás. Para hacer este ejercicio, los niños con una lupa y por parejas, dijeron cosas positivas de su compañero y viceversa. Luego decoraron la lupa y se la regalaron a su compañero.
A truly beautiful well being day!
