Teacher Feature Sunday: Volume 8 (Mental Health)
It's about this time of year that students begin to settle into a new level of comfort with their teacher and classmates. This year, this might be virtually, in-person, or both! Mental health has always been important, but this year it is probably more imporant than ever before. So, this week for our Teacher Feature edition, we wanted to focus on methods and resources that can be easily be implemented to promote mental health.
Our first find comes from a "share" made by Principal Patty Berry Hoppe last week. She was performing an observation and saw sticky notes all over the sides of the students' desks. Principal Hoppe was curious so she inquired about the sticky notes during the post-observation. Here, one of her teachers writes a note of encouragement to every one of her students every Friday! The students then proudly display the notes which really fosters a positive classroom environment. What a great collection of memories these students will have from their teacher.
If you have been following this blog for a while, then you know I love teaching with picture books. Well, this next find is a picture book and activity from Allie Apels (@joysofkinder). Allie read the story My Heart Fills With Happiness by Monique Gray Smith and discussed what brings joy to her students. Each student then painted a heart with watercolor paints and wrote something that makes them happy. How F-U-N! I feel like you could do this activity multiple times throughout the school year just as a check-in. We also just love how Allie displayed the joyful thoughts in the classroom. Here is the link to her page so you find more amazing ideas: https://www.instagram.com/joysofkinder/
Finally, one of the best mental health check-ins for children and adults alike is meditating. We found a great 5-minute meditation chart from @littleyogisca that could and should be used daily. In my classroom, the first five minutes after lunch/recess were the most dreadful part of my day because students spent that time tattling about what happened when I wasn't there to moderate. Now that I found this chart, I could so picture that time in my day being spent giving students five minutes to center themselves, calm themselves, and focus on relaxing. What a great tool to use to bring attention to mindfulness and feelings. Be sure to give @littleyogisca a follow for more mental health strategies: https://www.instagram.com/littleyogisca/
Again, we hope to get your Sunday off to a great start by sharing some high yield ideas with you. Our goal here at Lesson Plan Toolbox is to help you build your Lesson Plan Toolbox in order to save you time and make life just a little bit easier. If you are looking for something in particular, please feel free to reach out to us on Instagram (@lessonplantoolbox) so we can do the searching for you.
Teach~Relax~Repeat
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