Good to be Me!
We have a different focus for the school each week based on the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning. You can support your child by chatting about this at home. The overall focus for this half term is Good to be Me! This is a lovely project which helps children to think about what it is that’s special about them, what they’re good at and what their gifts and talents are. This is about building their own self-esteem and confidence and also about helping others feel good about themselves as we look at ways to make other people recognise their own special gifts and talents. As part of the learning, we will be helping children to develop an understanding of how to stand up for themselves in a good way that makes a difference.
We’ll give a few ideas each week about how you can help support SEAL work at home. You can also download an activity book that you might want to dip into during the half term with your child: SEAL Good to be Me Family Activities You can also find out more about how Circle Time is used in school to support children’s social and emotional development by downloading Circle Time
Week 1 – What makes it good to be you?
You might want to talk to your child about some of the intended learning outcomes shown below to help them really celebrate what makes them special.
- I can tell you about my gifts and talents.
- I can tell you something that makes me feel proud.
- I know when I learn best.
- I can tell you what I have learnt.
- I can tell you the things that I am good at and those that I find more difficult.
- I can tell when I am being impulsive and when I am thinking things through.
- I can tell when a feeling is weak and when it is strong.
Week 2 – What makes it good to be you?
You can help your child by talking to them about the different feelings they experience and by helping them to identify things they can feel proud about. Maybe you could set them a challenge to help someone else feel proud this week and check out how they get on with it.
- I know more names for feelings than I did before.
- I can use more words to express my feelings.
- I can tell when I am feeling worried or anxious.
- I can tell you some things that make me feel anxious.
- I can tell when I am feeling proud.
- I can tell you something that makes me feel proud.
- I can help another person feel proud.
Week 3 – Do you know how to manage your feelings?
For children to learn to manage their feelings, they need to be guided towards recognising them and developing strategies that they can use when their feelings are causing them to feel anxious. You can help at home by using a guided relaxation with your child such as the Treehouse Relaxation Script. This relaxation is related to finding a peaceful place. Activities that support children finding a peaceful place help them to feel safe and to re-establish feelings of tranquillity when they are experiencing challenging emotions. Next time your child is experiencing stress, worry, tension or other unwanted emotion, read this relaxation script to help him to calm down. Happy Climbing!
- I can be still and quiet and relax my body.
- I know what it feels like to be relaxed.
- I can show or tell you what relaxed means.
- I know what makes me feel relaxed and what makes me feel stressed.
- I can tell you what places help me to relax.
- I can explain some things that help me stop worrying.
- I can change my behaviour if I stop and think about what I am doing.
Week 4 – Can you stand up for yourself without hurting someone else’s feelings?
We all have a right to let others know what we need but as we grow up we learn to do it in ways that take account of the feelings of others. This is quite a tricky skill to learn as it’s all too easy to be aggressive in pushing for what we want or passively allowing others to have things their own way even if it doesn’t work for us. So in school we begin to help children to learn how to be assertive.
- I can say what I need.
- I can stand up for my own needs and rights without hurting others.
- I can choose to act assertively.
- I know how to be assertive.
- I can disagree with someone without falling out.
- I can cope when someone disagrees with me.
- I can behave in an assertive way using appropriate body language and tone of voice
If you would like some ideas about how to teach your child to be assertive, you might want to read Tips for parents on assertiveness
Week 5 – Do you know how to keep feeling good about yourself?
It’s reasonably easy to feel good about yourself when things are going well but life has its ups and downs and sometimes that can knock children’s self-confidence. Learning strategies that encourage them to value themselves and others can help children develop stronger self-esteem which brings strength and resilience when things aren’t going quite as well.
- I understand that all people are special and need to feel valued.
- I try to remember what makes me special and make sure I value myself.
- I try to remember what makes other people special and make sure I value them.
- I know that other people in school want to help me to feel good about myself.
- I try to make other people feel good about themselves.
- I know how to get help if I feel sad.
If you’d like to follow up on this at home, it’s useful to remember that if children are encouraged to carry out acts of kindness, are encouraged to look for the good in others, are helped to make time to remember to be grateful for all the everyday good things in their lives, and are helped to look at things from another point of view, it can help them to feel good about themselves too.