To teachers – Would you like the children in your classroom to be able to focus and concentrate on what you are teaching them?

October 15, 2018 by

Our book called Refocusing and Calming activities (Module 1) for children could help you?

If you use the activities that we offer in your classroom, as part of your daily routine, then your students will have a better chance of being more receptive to learning.

Here are some of the ways that you might use them.

INTEGRATED INTO CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

The exercises and techniques offered in the book can be integrated into classroom activities for the benefit of all children.

For example, at the beginning of the day or after lunch break when children’s energy may be scattered and unsettled, one of the following could be used:
Breathing Out Feelings – Activities 1.3, 1.7 or 1.9
Deep Breathing for Relaxation and Balancing – Activities 1.2, 1.4,
1.5, 1.8 or 1.10.
This can help to create a calmer, more peaceful classroom atmosphere, where the children are more receptive to learning.

DAILY ROUTINE – It may be beneficial to build in deep breathing exercises as part of a daily routine. For example first thing in the morning to help children oxygenate their bodies and to help them to
begin the day in a calm, relaxed state.

TIME OUT – Children could be taught to recognize when their own emotional energy is building up in their body (using the Body Awareness Activities in Module 2). They can them be given an opportunity to choose time out for a relaxation, and taking deep breaths followed by an art or a journal writing activity to help them express their feelings.
(See Module 5 for creative expression activities).
This could be combined with a debriefing session with the school counselor or a trained teacher aide.

A ‘CALM DOWN CORNER’ – A space could be created in the classroom, where children have access to pillows or cushions, relaxing music, art resources and their own journals. These resources can be used to help children to express their feelings as the need arises.
This corner provides children with the opportunity of expressing their feelings in a safe space, and helps them to change to a calmer more peaceful emotional energy state. For more information, see Appendix A.

Please go to our website to order this book

www.rainbowplanetconnection.com

 

 

 

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Tips for teachers. Why teach whole body listening?

November 15, 2013 by

Why teach ‘Whole body listening to the children in your class?’

Teaching whole body listening will make your life as a teacher a lot easier!
It will improve the quality of learning and lead to more co-operative, harmonious classrooms.
If you are a parent this technique could also greatly improve your communication with your children!girl looking up

Many children have not been taught how to listen well. Perhaps this is a sign of our times when communication skills are changing due to the increasing use of technology for communication.

However, I feel that it is really important to teach our children good listening skills (also known as active listening) as this is the basis for all good learning and acquisition of knowledge and wisdom and will serve them well as they grow into adults.
Everyone feels more appreciated if they know someone has listened to them and acknowledged what they have said.
rainbowplanetconnection.com

What is whole body listening?

Whole body listening means using the whole body eyes, ears, body posture and facial expression to listen well to someone else.
You can use this concept each week in your sessions to remind the children of good listening skills. Ask them:

‘How do I know you are listening really well?’

‘Are you listening with your whole body?’

The following list explains how this works:

o    Listening with your eyes – looking at the speaker, making eye contact (depending on the culture)
o    Listening with your ears – listen to the speaker with your ears (not the person next to you)
o    Listening with your mouth – the mouth should be quiet
o    Listening with your body – your body is facing towards the speaker
o    Listening with your hands – quiet hands (not moving)
o    Listening with your feet – quiet feet
o    Listening with your brain – thinking about what the speaker is saying
o    Listening with your heart – caring about what the speaker is saying

heart art

If a child is not listening, then you can simply remind them in a gentle way such as
‘Harry I would like you to listen with your body. Can you show me how you do this?

There are other activities that you can do to improve listening and communication skills with the children in your class.

Here is a simple activity from our E-training course for teachers that you can do to show the children the importance of eye contact.

Role Play 1 – Communication – Listening Skills

Preparation: Children sit in chairs or on the floor back to back. Children are not allowed to turn around and look at each other for this activity.

Step 1. Child A talks about what he/she did last weekend or about their pet or a member of their family. Child B listens and responds.
Step 2. Ask each child in turn – How did this feel?
E.g. Did you feel listened to? What difference did it make not being able to see who you were talking to?
Step 3. Discuss and emphasize the importance of eye contact, posture and body language in communication. Discuss ‘How do you know you are being listened to with regards to a) eye-contact, b) body language and facial expression and so on?

For other sample ideas on improving social skills and communication in your classroom please contact us!

From rainbowplanetconnection

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Tips for Child Counsellors and Therapists

October 24, 2013 by

Would you like more ideas and resources to help the children that you are counselling develop their social and emotional well-being?

Happy child with painted hands

I know that as a counsellor myself for many years, I was constantly looking for resources to use in my counselling role, especially ones that were interactive and fun.

I needed resources to use with small groups of children and also ones that I could use when working with a child one on one to help to encourage them to express their feelings!

If you are working with emotionally disturbed children it is extremely useful to have stimulus materials, ideas and resources to help them express their emotions in healthy, non-violent ways.

We (myself and Karyn – a primary school teacher) set up the Rainbow Planet Connection several years ago to provide resources and training programs to support children’s healthy social and emotional development.

We offer fun, creative activities to help to encourage children to open up and express themselves so that emotional healing can take place.

The activities we offer are based on the use of art therapy, drama, role play, dance and movement and creative writing to encourage children to express their feelings.

Art therapy for example, is a very useful and effective tool to use one on one or with small groups of children to help them to express their feelings. Many children find it difficult to talk about their feelings but if they are drawing a picture it helps to put them at ease and they often begin to open up. It is amazing what you can find out about a child’s personal circumstances from a drawing of their family!

dancing girl blog 231013Other activities are offered which are based on breathing exercises and inner body work. This involves looking inside the body to find out where the feeling or hurt is and then breathing it and/or doing other exercises to express and release the feeling.

Drama and role play activities are offered as part of our programme and provide fun, effective ways of helping children express their feelings and find better ways of responding to life issues.

As well as a number of Activity-based books and a set of colourful feelings cards we also offer an E-training course for anyone working with children and supporting their social and emotional well-being.

Our Training programs can be done online over a period of 7-10 weeks.
If you decide to enroll you will be provided with the full set of Programs and Resources to enable you to deliver between 8-10 sessions of Emotional and Social well-being skills to groups of young children (primary school age).

An outline of this course:

o This e-course has been created to provide resources and training to encourage and support the development of SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE in children

o Teaching EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE skills has been found to be a KEY FACTOR in producing happy kids with good self-esteem who are socially and educationally more successful

o The Program focuses on helping children to learn how to manage their own emotional energy as well as how to be more aware of other people’s emotional energy and how it affects them

o It introduces them to relaxation, visualization, breathing and body awareness techniques and teaches them how to use these techniques to centre and manage their own energy

o Creative self-expression activities are used throughout these sessions including games, role-plays, movement/dance, art, story telling and more, to help children to explore and express emotions

o The program also helps to empower kids to deal with life issues such as bullying, friendships and anxiety.
If you would like more detailed information about our resources or our training courses please go to www.rainbowplanetconnection.com
Or e-mail: carol@rainbowplanetconnection.com

Thanks for your interest.
Carol Wood, Director of Rainbow Planet Connection.

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Can Emotional Intelligence Be Taught?

October 18, 2013 by

We spend a lot of time in our children’s education focusing on literacy and numeracy and academic skills. Are we now realizing the importance of teaching children social and emotional intelligence skills too? After allchild at desk classroom children (and adults) have emotional needs as well as mental and physical.

At Rainbow Planet Connection we believe that teaching social and emotional intelligence is paramount to the well-being of children. Learning these skills will help them in all aspects of life. There is growing evidence that emotions can either hinder or enhance our ability to learn. Imagine being really worried about something in your life and trying to concentrate on learning!!

The following article from the New York Times supports teaching children emotional intelligence.

Below is an excerpt from the article:

Wade’s approach — used schoolwide at Garfield Elementary, in Oakland, Calif. — is part of a strategy known as social-emotional learning, which is based on the idea that emotional skills are crucial to academic performance.

“Something we now know, from doing dozens of studies, is that emotions can either enhance or hinder your ability to learn,” Marc Brackett, a senior research scientist in psychology at Yale University, told a crowd of educators at a conference last June. “They affect our attention and our memory. If you’re very anxious about something, or agitated, how well can you focus on what’s being taught?”

Once a small corner of education theory, Social-Emotional Learning (S.E.L.) has gained traction in recent years, driven in part by concerns over school violence, bullying and teen suicide. But while prevention programs tend to focus on a single problem, the goal of social-emotional learning is grander: to instill a deep psychological intelligence that will help children regulate their emotions.

boy sadFor children, Brackett notes, school is an emotional cauldron: a constant stream of academic and social challenges that can generate feelings ranging from loneliness to euphoria.

But in practice, Brackett says, many children never develop those crucial skills. “It’s like saying that a child doesn’t need to study English because she talks with her parents at home,” Brackett told me last spring. “Emotional skills are the same. A teacher might say, ‘Calm down!’ — but how exactly do you calm down when you’re feeling anxious? Where do you learn the skills to manage those feelings?”

If you agree with the suggestions and comments and you are a parent or are working with children and wish to support them with Social-Emotional Learning then you may be interested in our e-training courses.

  • Our online training courses can be accessed from anywhere in the world!
  • All you need for this course is internet access, an interest in developing new skills and having fun!
  • We will tailor the training schedule to suit your individual needs

On enrolment you will be provided with the full set of Programs and Resources to enable you to deliver between 8-10 sessions of Emotional and Social Skills well-being to groups of young children (primary school age).
We also have lots of activity books and resources about Social and Emotional Intelligence.

Please read our testimonials from others who have successfully used our training courses to suit their own individual situations.

Barbara Westgate – Canada. “I feel this is an extremely valuable program and I am anxious to learn as much as I possibly can from the Developers of the Rainbow Planet“.

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