Social Emotional Learning : Worried Mind vs Calm Mind, according to students.
Inside the post: Hear from students' prespective the differences between thier worried mind, versus calm mind - first hand glimpses into the social emotional brains for elementary school students.
Spaghetti Versus Ice Cream:
An odd heading for a social emotional blog post, but stick with me, and I'll explain.
If you've been with me for a bit, you know I have mentioned my Worried Mind vs Calm Mind drawing activity. I have been using this resource regularly over the past couple weeks with my students and...
I couldn’t wait to share some of their insights…
A virtual student shared that his worried brain was like spaghetti“ all tangled up," and, he exclaimed, "I don’t like spaghetti!”
He then went on to draw his calm mind as ice cream- sharing that it’s one of his favorite foods and that he feels calm when there is a cool breeze on his face.
What a cool (no pun intended) representation of his calm and his worried mind!!!
Another student drew a cloud raining for his worried mind. He explained this was how he felt when his poppy died and he was angry. Then, for his calm mind he drew a cloud that was raining stars: “stars are coming out of my brain…and that’s good.”
In this image below I wrote his descriptions on the side to capture his insights he was sharing verbally.
A third grade student drew 2 circles connected by a line in his worried mind thought bubble. He explained that one circle was worry and one was anger and that they were connected in his worried mind. For his calm mind, the line was removed and he explained that when he's calm, those emotions are no longer connected.
WOW.
I am loving the glimpses I’m getting into these social emotional brains!!
The creative expression, the awareness, and the conversations that this activity is igniting are far more than I originally planned or hoped! Isn't it great when things turn out better than you planned?!
This simple drawing activity is opening the brain up to self awareness in students. Additionally, it's creating a pathway for dialog that the students initiate from thier own worried mind and calm mind experiences.
Engaging in this dialog with students is proving to open up the door to learning how to calm, when our bodies need to calm and, ultimately, establishing learned pathways of calm - so students know how to get there and utilize their strategies.
All the tools to get started are in the Planting Your Calm resource bundle. This exciting new resource has already starting benefitting students and classrooms as calm is being planted and grown!!
Students may not yet realize the language and understanding that they already have within themselves to extract the meanings of calm versus worried in thier own brains. We, as educators, are giving them the means to explore thier social emotional brains.
I hope this resource is just as inspiring in your classrooms! I’d love to hear about the responses you’re getting!!
🍏Stay mindful,
Victoria
p.s. Stay in the know!! Sign up below to join The Mindful Apple community!!!
