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How to have a relaxing and reflective end to the school year

25/4/2017

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How to have a relaxing and reflective end to the school year with mindfulness colouring
 After the stress of the test, there is often a sense of a relief in the air! However, as wonderful as that is, it can also send everyone off into a bit of a tailspin and as we know, trying to keep a group of kids calm and focused in the last few weeks of the school year can be quite the challenge!

I guess we can't blame them... they're mentally wiped, we're mentally wiped. No one really has the brain power to do anything too challenging, right? But then we don't want to let them loose with "free time" as that is a recipe for disaster.... am I right?!

Well the last few weeks after testing don't have to be all about crowd control and just trying to make it to the end, really! It is possible to actually have a calm classroom, to enjoy the time with your class and reflect on the good times and what they learned.  

1) If you know me well, you'll know that I am a big advocate of mindfulness colouring. There are so many studies that prove its effectiveness at reducing stress and helping with concentration. If you're interested in learning more about this, check out this page here where I share more! I also have a whole range of teen friendly mindfulness colouring pages and they are all based around positive quotes or Growth Mindset: you can see the whole collection of colouring pages here!

This set here is the latest to be added and it's something a little different as it's in a mini booklet form! The idea is that each page is calmly coloured in and then students write their reflections on the school year in the blank space on the colouring page (as seen on the right).
How to have a relaxing and reflective end to the school year with mindfulness colouring
How to have a relaxing and reflective end to the school year with mindfulness colouring
​Simply cut out each page and staple the booklet together (as seen on the left). You print the booklet double sided (but be sure to use thicker paper though as some pens do bleed through regular copier paper) or you can do it single sided like I did here and let your students get creative and use the back page to stick on photos and other memories for example! There are 11 different colouring pages in total in this set - you can use them all or mix and match as desired!

The best bit is that these are all positive reflection prompts, and the fact that students can take some ownership in expressing themselves by colouring in these in will mean they have their own unique stamp on their end of year memory booklet! ​
How to have a relaxing and reflective end to the school year with mindfulness colouring
2) The second way to get them feeling positive and calm at the end of the year, is to give them an opportunity to have an informal chat with their friends about their year together and their favourite memories, all while they are colouring these in. You could set up a "speed date" activity with the individual sheets before they're stapled into a booklet. Speed dating works by pairing students up at desk for a few minutes while colouring in and chatting, then every few minutes you can ring a bell where one person moves to a different desk so everyone can have a chat to more people in the room. This is a great way of bringing your community together once more and making good use of this relaxing colour-time!
3) The third idea for ending the school year on a high with these relax and reflect colouring pages, is to get your students to do a little bit of circle time with them! Even big kids love some circle time :)
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After your students have coloured these pages in, you could get your class in a circle and get everyone to share something from their booklet, for example their favourite memory of the school year.  This really helps with bonding and promoting positive feelings in the group

A wonderful extension to this would be to create a collage or wall display using these pages - how wonderful would a collection of favourite memories or random acts of kindness be!
How to have a relaxing and reflective end to the school year with mindfulness colouring
How to have a relaxing and reflective end to the school year with mindfulness colouring
4) I have also included this bonus 11th page reserved just for "autographs" but really it would be wonderful as a page for special comments from friends or teachers who have meant a lot to them during their year. You might find you want to print more than one page of these if they want to get a comment from everyone in the class! It's perfectly customisable to your students!

To get the most out of this page, you could spend a few minutes encouraging your students to think of a favourite memory with each classmate so they can write something of real value, or at the very least, offer a compliment!
How to have a relaxing and reflective end to the school year with mindfulness colouring
I hope you have found some of these ideas helpful! If you want to learn more about these colouring pages, you can check them out here. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at teachersresourceforce@yahoo.com. I wish you a wonderfully relaxing and reflective end to the school year: let's do our best to make sure our students leave school on a high while keeping ourselves sane too!
How to have a relaxing and reflective end to the school year with mindfulness colouring
Thanks for reading this post :) If you found this valuable, leave a comment below or share it out!
I believe how we finish the school year is just as important as how we start. By making the end a relaxing and reflective experience for our students I'm confident we'll leave them with fond memories and excited about the next step!

How are you planning on wrapping up the school year? Leave a comment below, I'd love to chat more!
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3 things to say to your students to help them with the fear of making mistakes.

18/4/2017

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As a self confessed perfectionist myself, I understand the struggles: as a teacher, I want that outstanding lesson observation (phew, what a relief it was for me when my school finally got rid of putting grades on our observations!), wanting the perfect classroom (I'd say I've accepted 90% perfection with that one) all while wanting to look put together at work. Let's not even start on this website and how much time I spend on making things look just right for you! So I totally understand my perfectionist students too - I know that they hate getting things wrong, but as we know, it can be unhealthy when all their self-esteem relies upon getting 100% in a test...
3 things to say to your students to help them with the fear of making mistakes.
As it is testing season, there will likely be a lot of anxiety in the air. There is so much pressure on test scores but I believe we need to convey to our students that success doesn't come from academic achievement, it comes from how they feel about their mistakes. The problem is many of our students emotionally react to their mistakes rather than think about them logically.

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Here are a few conversations you have have with your "perfectionist" students to help put things into perspective:
1) First of all, let's try and replace the word "perfect" with "expert". Perfection implies you should never make mistakes and quite frankly, if that were the case we wouldn't be human. Mistakes are not "bad" unless you're trying to be "perfect". However, an expert can still make mistakes and that's totally OK! Preferable in fact, because it shows they are continuously learning. If you never make mistakes then you're not growing...
Do you see how immediately just rephrasing things lets them off the hook?
2) Did you know research claims it takes 10,000 hours of experience before you can be considered an expert at something? But it's not just 10,000 hours of practice, it's 10,000 hours of the right kind of practice. How do you know when you're practicing the right way? By making mistakes of course!!! Mistakes are essential so you know which areas to work on to improve. It's like ironing really... those stubborn creases usually need a bit more time and attention, but eventually if you keep working at them, they'll smooth out.
We need to teach our students not only are mistakes "OK", but they're absolutely essential if our students are to ever be an "expert" at something. Even then they will continue to make mistakes if they are doing it right!
3) Sometimes it feels "safer" to simply not even try out of fear of making mistakes because you feel at least that way, you're in "control" of a bad grade and therefore doesn't upset you as much. But that's not going to ever help you improve. No one starts as an expert, everyone has to work hard (even the ones who "seem" like it comes easy are usually working hard behind the scenes!). Make mistakes while you're young and in school - this is the safest place you can make mistakes as you will always have people around you who will help you iron out those wrinkles and get you on your way to becoming an expert! 
We all know those students who have that fixed mindset and have already decided they "can't" do something, but really it's a self-defense mechanism to protect their self-esteem. By helping them feel safe to make mistakes in your classroom, it will make a world of difference in helping your students grow into confident learners!
Thanks for reading this post :) If you found this valuable, leave a comment below or share it out!
I truly believe if we make an effort to help our students gain a positive perspective when it comes to making mistakes, then they will gain the confidence to make mistakes and continue to improve, developing into lifelong learners!

What are some of the struggles your students have when it comes to making mistakes? Comment below, I'd love to talk to you more about this!

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4 easy ways to integrate art into poetry

10/4/2017

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I'm a huge advocate for integrating art and creativity into my lessons! Sadly, many of us are struggling to fit the creatives arts into our hectic schedules these days with the increase in budget cuts and axing of the arts from the curriculum. 
4 easy ways to integrate art into poetry
However, art integration is something we should be fighting to include wherever we can as it is crucial for our students learning! Here's a few reasons why:
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  • It helps embed learning as research states that each time a student applies information in a new and creative way, it is embedded further into their brain.
  • It encourages healthy risk taking in your students as they have to think outside of the box to express themselves.
  • It helps them discover new skills.
  • It works as an excellent differentiation tool.
  • Helps build collaboration with others and creates a sense of community as their work can be proudly on display for all to see.
  • It's fun!

Art integration doesn't have to be hard or expensive, and you certainly don't need to be an artist to do it! Imagine how wonderful it would be if our students were able to express themselves creatively while still learning and embedding the curriculum in artistic ways!

Simply teach your unit as you normally would and get your students to write their poem out, but instead of stopping there they can express their poem in a range of creative ways. Here are some ideas to get you started!
1) Fingerprint Poetry:
This idea is really simple but effective! Students can either have a printable template (that you can download for FREE here!), or students can draw their own, then they simply write their poem along the lines. I always advise giving some freedom here to present this in any medium they wish for maximum ownership and creativity. Here are some examples of some creative fingerprint poetry. The first one wrote their poem using coloured pens, the second one is magazine clipping of words to make up the poem (I bet that one was time consuming!) and the final one has a combination of painting and highlighting of key words. The beauty is that they can express themselves as they wish. If you're worried about it taking up too much time in class, you can get them started and ask them to finish it off for homework!
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2) Blackout Poetry:
Blackout poetry is another very simple idea! For this activity, students can tear out a page from an old book or even a newspaper. They can then read through and highlight words that make up a short poem. This is actually more challenging than you would think as their choice of words is limited, but it also exposes students to new words too! It's great that it can easily be differentiated by the complexity of the text you provide. The rest of the page is free reign for students to be as creative as they wish! Check out these examples below:
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3) Poetry Art:
For this idea, you can give your students complete freedom as there is no base template to work from. They can start with a painting related to the poem's theme and then fill in the words of the poem wherever they like. This is idea for any particularly talented artists in your classroom!
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4) Poetry Products:
This idea is adorable, but definitely for the shorter poems! Your students can find any object they like such as a pebble or shell as seen in the example below and then write or stick their poem on it. Alternatively they can even do a craftivity such as the paper ball seen here!
​These would look great displayed up on a "Poet Tree" in your classroom!
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I hope this has given you some creative ideas for integrating art into your poetry units! Don't forget to download the free fingerprint templates from the VIP Area!
Thanks for reading this post :) If you found this valuable, leave a comment below or share it out!
I truly believe if we make an effort to integrate the arts into regular teaching units then our students will be able to learn more effectively, discover new skills and enjoy learning even more!

Which of these ideas caught your eye the most? Leave a comment below, I'd love to chat more!
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