Children’s Mental Health Week
This year’s theme was Let’s Connect, making meaningful connections.
Children’s Mental Health Week 2023 took place from 6th February - 12th February 2023. This year’s theme was Let’s Connect. Let’s Connect is about making meaningful connections. People thrive in communities, and this connection is vital for our wellbeing. When we have healthy connections – to family, friends and others – this can support our mental health and our sense of wellbeing.
Each year group has written a summary to set out how they marked CMHW:
Pine Class read The Ugly Five by Julia Donaldson.
Which is all about how some animals who feel different from the other animals in the Savannah join a club but then realise that everyone loves them after all even though they are different.
We shared our 'All about Me' books and talked to each other about our pictures and photos from home.
We made a chain of paper dolls to show how we all link together, and we drew pictures in a mirror frame about what we like about ourselves and how we are all special.
Year 1 looked at good feelings and bad feelings and how it’s okay to have bad feelings, with an understanding that we can’t always be happy!
We have been doing mindfulness activities, such as drawing and colouring and listening to calming music. We’ve also been doing some singing and dancing!
We’ve thought about the people we love and how they make us happy, as well as making Valentine’s Day poems to give to the people we love.
We then read the book ‘Climb’, which teaches children that we all have different talents, and that we are all special in our own different ways.
Year 2 have been reading a story based around mental wellbeing every day.
- The Colour Monster
- Ruby’s Worries
- Giraffes Can’t Dance
- The Problem With Problems and The Worry Monster
Children rewrote the story The Colour Monster and thought about what colour they are feeling. The children also enjoyed making their own worry monster!
Year 3 children took part in a number of ‘mindfulness’ activities - e.g. breathing exercises, yoga, colouring. We had class discussions about feelings and the importance of looking after everyone's mental health.
We also did a positive self esteem activity - where children each had an A3 poster filled with a positive statement from each member of the class to keep and remind them of all the lovely things their classmates think about them.
Year 4 used a powerpoint (from the Place2Be site) focussing on this year's topic ‘Lets connect’. There were really useful links to videos from the Place2be site, showing children sharing their experiences and thoughts.
We had a class discussion (during our community time) discussing feelings and we thought about our own
‘Class Connections,’ encouraging pupils to look at the different ways they are connected to members of their class.
We also practised breathing techniques (Classroom Zen (https://classroomzen.com/) providing children with a coping mechanism when they feel stressed.