Strengths and Positive Emotion is Autahi

Positive Emotions

One part of the Positive Education model is Positive Emotions.  

The research of professor Barbara Fredrickson is all around a theory known as the "broaden and build theory," in which she studies the importance and effect of building on positive emotion.  She explains that, "Fostering positive emotions is not just about feeling good. Fredrickson and others suggest that the purpose of positive emotions is to broaden and build our point of view which allows us to think and act in more flexible ways. Research tells us that when people experience positive emotions they are more creative, resilient, trusting and tolerant of individual differences in others." (Positive Emotions are Contagious, by Dr. Georgiana Cameron, Institute of Positive Education)

In thinking about this one thing we have been doing in class is identifying our individual strengths, our strengths as a class, and looking at noticing and acknowledging each other's strengths.  

One way we've been exploring positive emotions and strengths: We identified 8 different strengths that we thought were important and we were each able to choose the 3 that we thought were our top.  We created a bar graph looking at our strengths. 

As a class our top three strengths are: Not giving up, being patient and looking after our things well.  

Another way we have been working on the broaden and build theory is by identifying personal strengths. We created our own self portraits looking carefully at our face shapes, skin tones, eye colours and all the other details.  Then as a class we discussed the things we think we are really good at and we have put them up with our portraits. 

When we begin to set our goals it will be fantastic to work from points of strength and to recognise that the things we are good at now, we may not always have been good at!

Library Day

Fridays are our library day.  When we go to the library we are allowed to take out up to 4 books and we can have them out for up to 2 weeks.  

 We browse books that look interesting to us 

 Then we go sit down with them and have a look. Sometimes we like choosing books we know and have seen before and other times we find new books.  Sometimes there are big buddies with us in the library and they give us suggestions or read stories to us.  

 If we decide we don't want the book, we look at the letter on the label and put the book back in the matching bin.

 If we decide we do want the book, we go see Christine or other senior librarians and they issue the books for us. 

Then we sit down and enjoy our stories! 

When we have had enough of our book we can either put the books back in the blue library book returns box in the class or we can come with Mum or Dad to the library and return the books there! 

Critical and Creative Thinking through play

Our Positive Education Model

When we talk about Positive Purpose we look for ways to get ourselves and children engaged in something that is bigger than just themselves.  Often this can be found through identifying things that need improving.  When we are engaged in something in which we understand the purpose we often put more into in.  Last week in our play a few of our children found some positive purpose in sorting out a problem we were having. 

 During our Discovery time we have games and materials we can take outside to play with.  Our outside play space is on a hill and our boundary is at the top of the hill.  Many of our outside games have balls and often we lose many of the balls down the hill.  While playing a few of the members of the class decided they would figure out how to stop the balls from rolling down the hill.  My idea was to play our ball games by the hopscotch and that did work, but it made it hard for people to play hopscotch and limited our space.  What these boys came up with was a much better idea than I had!

They decided to make a dam using leaves and sticks by the cones.  At first they used their hands and feet and gathered leaves, but they realised that was going to take a long time.  They asked me for a bucket to make the job go faster and I pointed them in the direction of our wheelbarrow.  Well, they then were away.  They loaded the barrow and were able to create their dam more quickly and efficiently. 

 Their problem-solving and ingenuity got the attention of some of the others who decided they should test out the new dam.  They rolled the ball and sure enough it stopped the ball from rolling down the hill.  The team had solved a problem, created more safe space to play and felt a sense of accomplishment.  

They recognised a problem, thought of a solution, tried a few things out, made adaptations when building wasn't going as well as it could, tested out the product and all on their own interest and motivation.  They were engaged and determined. This is one of the powers of play and just a small amount of the learning that happens.    

Systems and Routines

Learning our Systems and Routines

Predictability and routine helps to promote responsibility and helps children feel safe and secure.  If they know things that are coming up they can feel more comfortable and confident and can focus on their learning, rather than worrying about what may happen next.  In Autahi we try to encourage the predictability with a few routines that are consistent throughout the week.  

1. Morning Jobs

Every morning there is a note written on the whiteboard as you come in the front door. Each morning the note gives some prompts for the jobs that need doing and may also suggest something to work on before the bell goes.  Getting into the habit of reading over the jobs with your child/ren each morning helps set a good routine.  Encouraging them to do their own jobs also helps to foster responsibility and ownership.  The 3 main jobs include unpacking your book bag, picking a snack and hanging up your bag, but there are other jobs that come up throughout the week as well. One of the other jobs is setting up our outdoor space and making it safe.  Letting the kids be the ones to do this helps them to recognise and internalise the boundaries as well as feeling a sense of responsibility and accomplishment. In this situation the kids problem-solved and worked together to move the heavy cones.

2. Buddy Reading

 Every day straight after Morning Tea children come back inside, find a buddy, pick a few books and look through the books together.  This encourages literacy, gives us a chance to wind down after play time and allows us to work with and chat with different people in the class.

3. Resting/Mindfulness/Meditation

Every day straight after lunch, the children come inside to soft music, find one spot, lay down and have a rest.  Sometimes we follow short guided children's meditations, other times we just focus on breathing and letting our bodies and minds rest in our otherwise busy days and sometimes we look out the skylight and watch the clouds go by.  The idea is that resting time is a quiet, on our own time to get in tune with how we are feeling and do a little bit of reflection on ourselves and our day. 

One of our systems: Our folders

Each child has their own folder where they are encouraged to put work that they are not finished.  The idea is that children can choose to go back and finish off something they started a few days before and we have a place to house our things.  Every few weeks we will do a folder sort where we look through, see if there is anything that needs finishing off and then things will come home. Systems like this one allow for children to take ownership over their own work and to maintain order in what is a very busy space with lots of things being made.

There are many more little routines and systems that we will be working on and learning, but that was just a snapshot.  Now that you know some of our routines you can encourage them at home and when you get to school. 

Welcome to 2018!

Welcome to 2018! We have been spending the last few days getting to know each other, figuring out all the spaces at school and trying lots of different things to see what we like. 

 

Just finding what we want to do is hard in a new place.  First we have to explore what we have and think about what we like doing.  We found this puzzle that we wanted to do and at first it was really hard, but then we worked together, we used the picture for some clues and we managed to complete it! 

Learning Links:

1) Taking Turns and Sharing

2) Problem solving 

3) Spatial awareness 

 I did a drawing about something I did in my holidays.  I camped in a tent with my Mummy, Daddy and Jack and me.  I wasn't sure how to do the drawing, but I looked at one of our picture dictionaries and I tried my best.  Then I drew the 4 people in the tent.  I found the word I on the word card and Gillian wrote the rest of my story for me! 

Learning Links:

1) Story Telling

2) Drawing

 We chose a shopping game from the maths shelf.  In this game we have shopping lists, carts and items and we have to try to find the items on our lists.  There are pictures but there are also words to read.  We chose this game, organised ourselves, took turns, and even made our own rules up.  We did some fantastic teamwork, collaboration and problem solving!

Learning Links

1) Literacy--matching pictures and words

2) Cooperation and Collaboration

3) PE and Health--playing games with others and following rules of a game

We worked together and took turns using the listening post on the Ipad.  We have to use the QR codes to get access to the stories, find the matching book and work the device.  We each had a go at choosing a story.

These are just a few of the things going on in Autahi so far.  We are still navigating our new space and figuring out what we like to do and what materials we have around us.  Watch this space as we will be sharing lots of our learning adventures here every week!