50 Wellbeing Lessons for the Diverse Primary Classroom

Teaching Through Inclusive Practice

Manisha Tailor

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000369939
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book is designed to support teachers in promoting social and emotional wellbeing within their diverse classroom. With 50 detailed lessons plans and supplemented resources to promote discussion, each lesson plan contains learning outcomes, activity descriptions and further questions around areas of diversity specific to race, culture and LGBTQ+.

This accessible text offers a collection of activities with supplemented resources on a wide range of pertinent topics that challenge children to reflect, ask questions, analyse and find solutions through open discussion and collaboration. It provides them with the opportunity to explore their feelings and understand empathy and develop coping strategies in order to promote mental wellbeing. The content covered in this resource includes topics such as the psychological impact of discrimination, the Black Lives Matter movement, prejudice, coping with loss, feeling left out, moving school and managing as a young carer.

A practical guide ideal for those new to teaching as well as more experienced practitioners, this resource will help address social and emotional wellbeing through themes that often affect marginalised groups and is crucial reading for anyone looking to embed an inclusive mental wellbeing culture within their school.

Part I

Feelings and emotions

The resources in this section provide children with an opportunity to explore the definition of mental health and ways in which they can keep a healthy mind, introducing them to mindfulness and strategies to keep calm. They will also have the opportunity to think about how emotions and mood can change depending on the circumstance, and ways in which they can manage big and negative feelings.

Activity 1

What is mental health?

Age: 7–11

Context

Our mental health is part of the way in which we live our lives every day. Generating open and collaborative discussions around what this looks like, and more specifically what this means to different children, is vital to ensuring that they feel safe to talk about their feelings and emotions.

Learning outcomes

The children will have an opportunity to:

• Understand the definition of mental health
• Recognise and respond to a wider range of feelings
• Understand good and not so good feelings and associated language
• Recognise that they may experience conflicting emotions
• Reflect on what positively and negatively affects their mental health

Activity

This activity provides children with an opportunity to explore the definition of mental health and what this looks like for them. Pose the question: What does mental health mean to you? Encourage children to explore different things that make up our mental health. This could include feelings, managing change, exercise or resilience. Due to the stigma associated with mental health, ensure that the children are aware that mental health is not always negative, rather it is a part of how we feel which in turn affects how we live our lives everyday.

The mental health jigsaw can be used to generate discussion around feelings that make up our mental health. Ask the children to consider what can cause someone to express the feelings that they can see on the resource.

Use the blank mental health jigsaw resource to provide children with an opportunity to draw the things that they feel make up their mental health based on earlier discussions, and support their drawings with a caption.

Questions for thinking

• What do you understand by mental health?
• What does mental health mean to you?
• How do you think the characters in the resource are feeling?
• What might have happened to make the characters feel that way?
• Can you think of a time when you have experienced any of these feelings?

Resources

• Mental health jigsaw
• Mental health jigsaw (blank)

Mental health jigsaw

Mental health jigsaw (blank)

Activity 2

My mindful mind

Age: 7–11

Context

Mindfulness is a technique that you can learn which involves making an effort to notice what is happening in the present moment in your mind, body and surroundings. Mindfulness can help children become more self-aware, feel calmer and be able to cope with difficult thoughts. Mindfulness can be used when children feel anxiety, nervousness or fear. Like positive mental health, it can enable children to feel happy, safe and well by being able to make choices on how they respond to their thoughts and feelings.

Learning outcomes

The children will have an opportunity to:

• Think about how to keep a mindful mind
• Recognise and respond to a wider range of feelings
• Understand good and not so good feelings and associated language
• Recognise that they may experience conflicting emotions
• Reflect on what positively and negatively affects their mental health

Activity

This activity provides children with an opportunity to develop social and emotional skills by identifying feelings, thoughts and emotions. Pose the question: What does having a healthy mind mean to you? Encourage children to provide a reason and lead this onto a discussion on wellness and being mindful. Pose the question: What do you do when t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Endorsements
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• About the Author
• Foreword
• Why teach about mental health in primary schools?
• Useful links
• Part I Feelings and emotions
• Part II Bullying
• Part III Growth and fixed mindset
• Part IV Understanding ourselves
• Part V Managing life at home
• Part VI Coping with loss and exclusion
• Part VII Resilience
• Part VIII Anxiety and depression
• Part IX Race, religion and culture
• Part X Relationships
• Part XI Disability