This week we looked at the final colour of the rainbow – Red. When I asked the children what red would be if it were a feeling, a lot of different answers came up. Anger. Love. Embarrassment. Happiness. Fear.
The colour red has many associations, but the one we focused on today was how red can offer us a sense of security and well-being. We spoke about imagining ourselves covered in a red blanket, almost like a cocoon, to help us feel better when we are afraid or scared.
I played a guided visualisation for the children where they were asked to imagine themselves floating on a cloud. They were made to feel safe and secure. This allowed them to let go and completely relax their bodies. I am not sure if some of them fell asleep but they were absolutely still! And the weighted blankets were again a wonderful source of calming for the children that used them.
Yesterday I posted an article about how children need to PRACTICE paying attention. We need to “train” our brain to focus on something for a particular length of time. In this week’s classes, we did a variety of exercises to “train” the brain to focus. In one of the auditory exercises, each child was given an action (e.g. clapping hands or clicking fingers) to do to the beat of some music. The song I played was “Say Halleluja” by Tracy Chapman (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcCosUCbfQg) which has a wonderful rhythm. This exercise encouraged the children to pay attention to the music and listen out for the beat so they could do their action in time with everyone else. It was great fun and the kids did really well! I think there might be a couple of musicians-in-the-making:)
Another exercise we did to help our brains to pay attention was making rainbow macaroni necklaces. The children threaded various colours of macaroni onto a piece of string and made the most beautiful necklaces. The task required the children to concentrate and make use of their fine motor skills (which are still being refined in the 4 – 7 year old age group). The children were incredibly tenacious and focused really hard to get the string through the macaroni. The results were wonderful!
What a great way to end off the term! I thoroughly enjoyed the classes this week and the kids seemed to as well. I look forward to seeing many of them at the Holiday Workshops and others in the new year. So, the Mindful Minis Rainbow theme is now complete, but I have something very exciting in store as a theme for Term 1 2017 so watch this space!
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