Whole School – Friday’s Home Learning

1. Sit mindfully, with your spine straight and body relaxed. Take three soft, slow mindful breaths and notice your mood. 

Where do you feel your mood? Put your hand there. Does it feel heavy like clay or light like a feather? 

1. Now choose a pen/pencil to draw your mood. Blue could mean one mood. Red or green could mean another, you choose.
2. Keep your mood drawing where you can see it. It helps remind you how you have been feeling. Later you might be in a different mood, so create a new drawing and let the old mood go. 

Paying attention to your mood in the morning, can help you change how you act throughout the day. 

Explain to your child that anxiety is the feeling you get when you can’t get a worry out of your mind. You might feel anxious about something that has happened in the past that might happen again, or that something might happen to you or someone you love. Perhaps you’re so scared of the dark that you get a horrible feeling in your body when you think about it. Sometimes, people get anxious and they can’t really explain why, or they don’t think anyone else will understand their worries. Anxiety is just one of the emotions humans feel and it is normal!  Talk to your child about the reason that humans feel anxious is to help them keep safe from danger. In the Stone Age people felt anxious about sabre-toothed tigers and today we worry about other things so we stay safe. 

What does anxiety feel like? 

Look at the picture below and read the words around the person. These are all things we can feel when we are anxious. Discuss with your child the ones that you feel when you worry. You don’t need to use scary examples, try to keep your examples honest and real but not big enough that they then become a worry for your child. e.g. Mrs Carter feels sweaty when she has to sing in front of the whole school or when she leads a parent assembly. Encourage your child to share a time they have felt anxious and if they felt any of the feelings on the list.