primary Archives - Mind Moose

World Mental Health Day Assembly

October 8, 2017 By Zoe Ross

Tuesday 10th October is World Mental Health Day.

So, we have created an assembly for schools to use with their pupils.

It introduces mental health in the context of being as important to look after as physical health before discussing ways that we can all look after our mental health. It also discusses how children and adults in a school community can help each other to look after mental health.

You can download it by clicking the button below. Do let us know in the comments if you use it and how you get on!

Click to download 'Looking after our Mental Health' assembly

Peace Day Activities

September 19, 2017 By Zoe Ross

peace-day-activities The 21st of September is the International Day of Peace (known as Peace Day) and we think that’s a pretty important topic to get children thinking about at the moment.

So, we thought we’d give you some activities you can do with a whole class, small groups of individual children (at home if you’re a parent).

We hope you have a peaceful day.

Overview

These activities look at what peace means around the day’s theme of ‘Together for Peace: Respect, Safety and Dignity for all.’

Introduction (if needed)

Ask the whole class, ‘when you close your eyes and think of the word peace, or peace, what do you see in your imagination?’
Get them to write their ideas down, or draw a picture on a post it note and stick them on a board and discuss their ideas.
Ask what synonyms they could think of when thinking of the word peace, e.g. calm, serenity etc…and create a mindmap of them. They can use a thesaurus to help them (it is important that they understand the new word they have come up with.)

Activity 1: Peace Poem

Using the letters in the word PEACE ask children to work in groups, or work with them to come up with an acrostic poem.

Activity 2: Peace Pledge

Discuss with children what a pledge is, e.g. a promise or a guarantee.
Ask them what they could pledge for peace. Write the children’s ideas onto a mindmap, e.g. I pledge to think about the words I speak etc…
Write a class or home pledge. Each children could write one or two things and this gets put together as a whole class pledge and displayed around the classroom, school or home.

Activity 3: Images of Peace

Discuss with the children images of peace, e.g. a dove.
What other images can they think of which might represent different aspects of peace?
Using a range of different art materials ask children to create a collage of something that represents peace and being together as a class, e.g. a globe with children on the outside holding hands. This could be made into a display.

Summary:

Ask children to summarise their main points of learning regarding peace and what pledges they could make.

Extension

Children could create an assembly or song about peace and working together.

Click to download activities

Pre-SATS Body Scan Relaxing Meditation

April 25, 2017 By Zoe Ross

We know that SATs can be an anxious time for some children (and teachers and parents!). So Zoe has recorded a free audio for you to use with your children.

It’s a relaxing body scan mindful mediation that is just over 3 minutes long. Our chief year 6 testers said it helped them to feel a lot calmer!

We hope it helps – good luck!

Click to download

Spring Poem Lesson Activity

April 15, 2017 By Zoe Ross

Mind-Moose-Spring-Activity-Image This spring poem activity celebrates that spring has well and truly sprung here in the UK.

So, we thought we’d give you another free lesson activity to help you spring into the summer term (spring puns over!).

Overview

This KS2 spring poem English activity encourages pupils to share adjectives and feelings associated with spring and other seasons before writing a poem. You will need to print out copies for small groups of slides 7-10 or use slide 6 to create a spinner for each group (see downloads at the end).

Objectives

To use adjectives and creative vocabulary to describe the seasons.
To understand and express how the seasons can link to our emotions.
To develop written language by creating a poem based on the seasons.

Introduction

Ask pupils to share with a talking partner how they feel today (slide 3). You could use these emotion cards by the wonderful Bev Evans.
Take the ‘emotional temperature’ of the class by asking some pairs to share how they feel (or holding up their cards).
Discuss that how we feel can change based on a range of different factors (e.g. what we are doing and who we are with, what is going on in our lives, how much we slept last night etc).
Ask the class if they think that the seasons affect how they feel (slide 4). i.e. do they feel any different now it’s spring than they did in winter? Or do they feel better in summer? Explain that you will be exploring this in today’s lesson.

Words to describe the seasons

Take a look outside of the window and invite pupils to describe the signs of spring that they can see (slide 5). Make a list on the board.
Split the class into small groups and give out printed copies of the seasons cards or spinner (slides 6-10).
Give out large sheets of paper and ask groups to create a mind map of adjectives describing the seasons by taking turns to spin the spinner or turn over a card and each time writing an adjective to describe the season e.g. yellow or bright for summer, blooming for spring etc.
After a few minutes invite groups to stick up their paper and discuss their ideas as a class.

Seasons and feelings

Give out another sheet of paper to the groups and this time ask them to consider and explain how people might feel during those seasons. For example, they might feel happy in spring because they like seeing the flowers and eating Easter eggs!
Encourage pupils to think about people other than themselves too. E.g. they might feel happy in winter when they can play in the snow, but who might feel a different way?
After 5-10 minutes invite pupils to stick up their large sheets and discuss as a class. How do the different seasons make us feel and why? Are there any patterns? Highlight that even if most people feel one way, others can feel differently; there is no right or wrong answer.

Writing a spring poem

Explain to pupils that you would now like them to create their own spring poem using the work they have done so far.
Model how to take a season, an emotion word and an adjective to create a sentence. E.g. In spring I feel joyous with a yellow glow.
Invite pupils in their groups or individually to create a poem about the season they have chosen.

Review and wrap up

Invite pupils to share their poems and highlight how language can express our feelings.
As the poems are read, ask the rest of the class to close their eyes and listen to the poem, then share any pictures the poem being read brought to mind for them.
Ask pupils to share what they have learnt about the seasons and how the seasons can make us feel in today’s lesson. What one word would they use to describe how they feel about spring?

Ideas for extension:

Pupils could use expanded phrases within the poetry. E.g. The burning heat of summer, melted my heart and with it its worries.
The poems could be used to create a feelings/emotion display of the seasons and/or spring.

Click to download lesson plan

Click to download lesson presentation

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Children’s Mental Health Week Small Acts of Kindness Activity

February 7, 2017 By Zoe Ross

mind-moose-small-acts-of-kindness-image

Click here to download PDF

Suitability
This ‘Small Acts of Kindness’ activity can be used for primary pupils of any age. Instead of writing, younger pupils can draw or photograph small acts of kindness to use in the ‘kindness cards’ activity.

Overview
This activity focuses on all acts of kindness, but especially those small acts that can make a very real difference to people’s lives and impact positively on each other, our schools, communities and the wider world.

Introduction

What is kindness? Come up with an agreed definition as a class.
Introduce the idea of a ‘small act of kindness’. What might this be?
Discuss what small acts of kindness pupils have come across in their lives – perhaps they have been kind to others, or others have been kind to them. What did they do and how did this make them feel? How did it make other people feel?
Discuss why a small act such as tidying something up without being asked, saying thank you to someone or giving them a hug, or helping a friend with something they are struggling with like homework may help to put a smile on somebody’s face.

Kindness in the wider world

Share with older pupils the idea of suspended coffees and discuss how acts of kindness can be monetary in terms of buying a coffee for somebody.
Share and discuss the idea of alternative advent calendars, where instead of opening a door each day for advent prior to the Christian Christmas celebration, some people put an item into a box and on the final day they gave the box to somebody in need.

Creating Kindness Cards

Give out pieces of card and coloured pens to pupils and ask them to create small cards with a small act of kindness that can be done in school written on each of them. Depending on your class, you may need to offer additional support or ask pupils to work in pairs or small groups. For those who struggle to write in full sentences, they could draw or take photographs and add captions to them.
Discuss how these acts might help somebody and what the feelings for the giver and the receiver might be.
Emphasise that this isn’t about spending money on doing something to help somebody but it is about the act itself. A small act can have a huge impact. E.g. smiling at somebody who is unhappy will help them feel that someone has noticed and cares.
Put the cards in a suitable ‘kindness box’ and every morning ask each child to take out a card and perform that act of kindness. You could put a sticker or smiley face on a reward card so pupils can see how many acts they have performed over a week/month.

Plenary

Discuss how the acts of kindness can help to improve the world we live in. Ask pupils to share their ideas for small acts of kindness they could do at home or in their community.
Keep talking about the acts of kindness over the course of the week as the pupils perform them and beyond. How did it make them feel to give or receive a small act of kindness?

Ideas for extension:

Pupils could create a bar chart for how many different times a particular act of kindness card was used so they can see the impact they have had on their class or the whole school.

Ideas for small acts of kindness: