Those of you with older children at St. Matthew’s will probably know that it was Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week last week.  Miss Manhire (who is our Year 6 teacher and KS2 phase leader) organised lots of events throughout the school to mark the week and to encourage a school-wide conversation about mental health.  The theme for this year’s week was ‘Find Your Brave’ and you can find out more about it here:

One of the Characteristics of Effective Learning that we always encourage the children in Nursery to demonstrate is ‘playing and exploring’ which includes the idea of ‘having a go’.  We want the children to feel safe and settled and brave enough to ‘have a go’ at activities and experiences that they may not usually try or come across.

This week, we wanted to give the children lots of sensory experiences.  There is evidence to suggest that these sort of experiences are really important for brain development in the Early Years of life (you can read more about this here if you like…).  These experiences can also have a soothing, calming effect which promotes self-regulation of our emotions.  They can be very messy though, so don’t forget to put on your apron if you are trying any at home!

We have also been busy making our own calming, sensory bottles which look like a glitter-storm or whirlwind!  The children have loved making these and we would be most grateful for any more donations of small (500ml) plastic bottles next week so we can ensure each child has a bottle to bring home.  Thank you if you have already sent bottles in!

At story time, we read two of my favourites…

First, we read ‘A Color of His Own’ by Leo Lionni which tells the delightful tale of a chameleon discovering the importance of friendship for self-esteem.  You can re-visit the story below and do remember to turn the sound off if you would like to read it aloud yourself.

Next, we read ‘The Colour Thief’ by Gabriel Alborozo which tells the thought-provoking story of an alien called Zot who decides to steal all the colours from planet Earth.  The Nursery children quickly decided this was not a very ‘kind and friendly’ thing to do!  Luckily, Zot meets a little boy who helps him realise just how sad he will make the people on Earth if he takes all the colours.  What can you remember about the story? Look at the pictures below to remind you…

We hope everyone has had a lovely weekend and managed to stay safe and warm in spite of Storm Ciara!