Each year at Garrick Green we have a 'Day of Calm’. The children are all used to taking part in DOTS sessions for mindfulness and yoga, as well as discussing their emotions.  The 'Day of Calm' brings together all sorts of different ideas and activities from these sessions. 

As a Wensum Trust School all members of staff have been trained in Emotion Coaching. As part of this approach at Garrick Green we often discuss our emotions and what happens when people ‘Flip their lids’ so the children are used to thinking about ways to stay calm and regulate their emotions.  The 'Day of Calm' gives the children a whole day to practise what we have learnt about self-regulation in lots of different ways! Let’s face it, we’re all very different so we need lots of different ways to regulate ourselves and feel happy!

The children love being outside in nature and have been encouraged to slow down and enjoy the world around them.  They’ve tried barefoot walking on the grass and cloud gazing to see what shapes they could spot.  Some children became nature investigators too!

             

Every class tried out different aspects of yoga including partner yoga and individual yoga poses, including a pose for each letter of the alphabet.  They also tried different breathing exercises - a simple bit of bubble blowing can be fun and have a very calming effect on the body!

                                             

There were lots of craft activities taking place too.  Some children painted with water colours, others tried origami or tried mindfulness colouring whilst listening to music.

                                          

 

                           

In between these different activities, classes also used different breathing exercises such as ‘five finger breathing’, tummy breathing or bubble breathing with fish!  Click on this link to see what we mean.

Hopefully, by the end of the day, the children (and staff!) all felt relaxed and calm and will remember some of the activities that made them feel happy.