This afternoon, some children from Year 5 and 6 were chosen to take part in a new programme called; ‘Think Good, Feel Good’.
The programme will run for 6 weeks with Miss Greenwell and Hannah Long from Gateshead Council.
The first session was called; ‘Be kind to yourself’. After we introduced ourselves, we played a game called ‘Find a friend bingo’. We had to ask each other questions about themselves, such as, ‘Name 3 feelings’ and ‘Do we like the same colour?’ If any of the answers were yes, we had to write that persons name down. The first person to complete their bingo sheet was the winner. We then collectively created an A3 poster of group rules for when we attend the session each week.
Our main discussion was around being kind to ourselves. Hannah chatted with us about our ‘inner voice’ and what this means and feels like. We discussed how our inner voice sometimes says bad things such as; ‘You got a rubbish score in that test’ or ‘’I don’t like the way I look”. We then chatted about how we can turn these negative thoughts into positive thoughts. We changed some of our negative thoughts to; ‘yes, I didn’t do well in this test, but there’ll be a next time and I’ll try harder then’ or ‘I may not like the way I look at the moment, but I really love how kind I am to others”.
We then thought about positive thoughts and feelings and wrote down one thing you like or admire about the person sitting to your right. The children were incredibly thoughtful and kid towards each other, as well as Miss Greenwell and Hannah. Some of our comments included; ‘I like that you’re kind to me during hard times’ and ‘You made feel so calm and comfortable when I spoke to you’.
The end of our session involved a breathing exercise, relaxing our minds and bodies. We then followed this up by taking part in a breathing challenge involving a piece of chocolate! This was one of our favourite parts of the session, yummy!
