It’s been a sensational start to the year with our brand new Stage One! I’ve been so excited to welcome our new families to CCSC, as well as welcoming our returning students.
In Stage One, we have been learning about how we can have healthy bodies as well as healthy minds.
We have been exploring some key areas of our brain such as our prefrontal cortex (the boss, or the part that helps you make decisions), hippocampus (the memory store) and amygdala (the security guard, or the part that keeps you safe) and how these areas of our brain affect our day to day movements and learning. In Stage One this has been a very interesting topic as not only have we learnt about the physical jobs of the brain, but also the thoughts and emotions our brain helps us feel and communicate (and we learnt some really cool new words as well!).
This has been an awesome way to start the year as it has given us an opportunity to explore learning and how it actually happens for each of us as individuals. Learning about learning, I believe is an important skill for all children as it helps them take control of their own learning and begin to understand the skills to regulate their own learning, a skill which is promoted highly at CCSC.
It’s also given us a chance to discover ways to become more self-aware as people and take more notice of our emotions and reactions.
An aspect we have been focusing on has been our ‘mindfulness’. Mindfulness is paying full attention to what is going on in you and outside you, moment by moment. It means you observe your thoughts, feelings, and the sensations of taste, touch, smell, sight and sound.
Our mindfulness practice has involved different breathing techniques, meditation and calming ourselves so we can attempt to regulate ourselves and notice our behaviour before it affects our learning, such as noticing if we are getting frustrated, distracted or tired. This can be a real challenge when you are an on- the-go, full-of-beans young person but Stage One are certainly giving it a go.
I have also found it challenging being an adult who is constantly talking and moving, as I very rarely take the time to slow down or calm down after a really busy activity. It has been a nice change for myself to try and find a few minutes each day to breathe, take in the moments and explore my own ‘mindfulness’, as a role model for my students.
You can find out more information about mindfulness and its effect on children and their learning at smilingmind.com.au and also at mindup.com
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