Thinking about Compliments

After our discussion around emotions, we decided to get our thinking caps on around compliments.

So, what is a compliment?

Ieni - It's something nice you would say to others to make them happy.

Levi - You can say I like your clothes or your glasses.

Nevaeh - I like how you’ve done your hair today.

Brady - Their accessories they’re wearing.

Riley - Lipstick.

Yoyo - Nice things you can say about people’s bodies and that.

Aria - I like how you’re showing kindness to other people

Jemma - I like your house

Adham - I like how you swim.

Josiah - Compliments mean say sorry and say thank you.

How does it make you feel when someone gives you a compliment?

Jyuvana  - Feels like they’ve made your day.

Nehemiah - Amazing.

Kaiya - Makes your happy bucket filled up.

Sonny - Proud.

Leonie - Grateful.

Blake - Great.

Josiah - Excited and happy.

Jaydi - Grateful and surprised.

Nevaeh - Thoughtful (the person who gave the compliment).

Aria - Leaving a big smile on your face.

We spent some time practising giving others compliments...

What were some compliments that others gave you?

Rocky said he likes how I am kind to people - Adham

Manaia said she loves the way I show caring on the outside and inside. - Jaydi

Adham filled up my bucket by saying i like how you let people join in what you’re saying. - Rocky

Alex said he liked my shoes - Blake

Kaiya said to me and Ocie that she liked our hair - Nevaeh

We discovered that some of us found this task easy and others found it tricky...

I wonder why some people found it easy?

I had people that listened to me and I got ideas from other people. - Devyn

I just looked at them and found out what I should say to them. - Anarah

Compliments are just so nice, I just can’t stop saying them! - Jaydi

Why did some people find it tricky?

Yohannas - Cos like you can’t think of anything about them like what they’re good at and stuff.

Adham - I was so busy listening to them and lost my idea.

Riley - Maybe you’re tired.

Jem - You might not know much about them.

Next we had a game of compliments tag in the sunshine. In order to be freed when you have been tagged, a buddy has to come and give you a compliment. Once you have thanked and high-fived the compliment giver, you are back in the game!

Caring

A few weeks ago, we began our journey around what it means to be Caring.

Caring is one of our Bromley School Values, and is an area that Miss Gardner and Mrs Smith noticed needed some thinking around.

We began by noticing tamariki that were showing Caring in different ways. We celebrated how they were showing this value and began to note them down on Post It notes.

This then turned into the children nominating their peers for being caught Caring throughout the school day.

We talked about 4 main areas within which we could show Caring at school - People, Work, Class and Environment.

One afternoon we split into small teams and brainstormed as many ideas as we could for how we might show our value of Caring within each of the main areas...

During one of our Kiwi Can sessions we looked at goal setting.  This gave the teachers an idea...what if we thought about setting our very own Caring goals?

Whilst brainstorming possible ideas for our goals, we needed to be quite reflective about ourselves and think about an area that suited our individual needs.

Check out what we've decided on...

Pītau 1 had a sneaky peek at how Koru 1 display their goals and saw that they used a continuum to monitor how they are going towards achieving their goals.

We have set up our own continuum and are starting to reflect upon how we are tracking with our goals.

“My goal is to move away when I’m getting distracted.  I put myself on number 3 ‘cos I’m doing it sometimes.”  Jyuvana

“My goal is to put my reading folder in the basket every day.  I’ve put myself on number 3 because I’ve been doing it lots.”  Manaia

“My goal is to use my manners.  I’ve put myself on number 3 because I’ve been showing manners wherever I go.”  Leo

“My goal is to pick up rubbish in the classroom.  I’ve put myself on number 2 because I’m doing it sometimes.”  Kahu

“My goal is to put my reading folder in the right place.  I’ve put myself on 2 because I’m still learning how to do it and sometimes I forget and sometimes I can’t find it.”  Jaydi

“My goal is to move away when someone is annoying me.  I’m still on number 2 because I’ve done it sometimes.  I did some today as well.”  Alex

“My goal is to move away when I’m getting distracted and I’m on 1 because I’m starting to do it.”  Serena

“My goal is to put sheets in my book correctly.  I’m on 3 because I always do it.”  Xavier

Where to next?

We will continue to monitor our goals on a weekly basis - thinking about how we can improve.

We will look into how this value links with some Key Competencies set out in our National Curriculum.

We are looking into 'what makes the perfect friend'.

Learning About Our Brains

Over the last week we have been focussing on our feelings and participating in some workshops about self regulation.

Each morning when we come into the classroom and sign in we also check in to show how we are feeling. We are getting really good at expressing how we are feeling. 

We've learnt about our learning brains and our emotional (feelings) brain. Sometimes our brain becomes so full of emotion we aren't able to learn as well and we need to help our brain calm down and relax.

We are learning how to "cross the bridge" from our emotional brains back into our learning brains. 

  We learnt 5 fun breathing techniques and enjoy reading the "I Can Calm" book. We have even started creating some of our own breathing techniques! 

We have practiced some new yoga poses too! 

Looking at the roundabout:

We identified some learning that happens in our L.Brain, some feelings, some strategies we can use to "cross the bridge" and some possible behaviours we might see if we got stuck in our E.Brain. 

When we are in our E.Brain we want to drive the correct way around the roundabout into the strategies. Otherwise... 

"You'll have a crash!" - Amber 

"You might get pulled over by the cops!" - Sonny

In short, we do not want to travel the wrong way around the roundabout.

Today we learnt about making new pathways in the brain when our brain is feeling too full or messy. 

We drew pictures of our L.Brains and E.Brains and how we thought they may look. 

Anarah drew the pathways with a little house on the end of each pathway. Inside the houses were all the different kinds of learning she loves doing at school. 

We watched this great video about breathing and learnt how to use our glitter jars. 

We have been really enjoying learning these new calm down strategies. This is how we have been feeling after these workshops: 

Calm - Kaiya 

Tired - Phoenix

Happy - Seb

Hungry - Oscar 

Excited - Quade

Relaxed - Jaxon

Stretched - Jaydi 

Ask us to show you our favourite breathing strategies!