Change Your WORDS, Change your MINDSET

Accept challenges. Ask questions. Make mistakes.
Admit you don't know the answer, YET!

We've had a great year, but It's APRIL and spring fever might be trying to set in. 🥀

You have been strong and stayed positive and learned so much! Sometimes when things become difficult we lose our confidence, or our motivation, and feel like giving up.  

It takes courage to try again, it takes courage to make mistakes, but that is what it takes to develop your growth mindset. 

When you feel stuck, try changing your words. 

Changing your words can change your thoughts too!

It helps when we remember that success doesn't just happen overnight. Success takes work, and lots of it! We can train our brain and we can find new ways to solve problems, if we tell ourselves we CAN! You know how to work hard. You've seen what can happen when you DON'T GIVE UP! So, try one MORE time!

 

Do you want to earn more about GROWTH MINDSET? 

Follow this link to the bitmoji classroom and explore books, videos and more!

🎵🎶🎵🎶 Check Out this Growth Mindset SONG LIST 🎵🎶🎵 🎶

   

Informational Websites for Parents/Teachers:

Mind Shift
Mindset Kit
Mindset Works

What Kids Can Do

Finding A Happy Balance

 

ALL feelings matter. Everything we experience is part of what makes us us. Emotions can be messy, complicated, and just plain confusing. Learning to name our emotions and talk about them — by ourself and with others — is a key part of developing our emotional intelligence and well being.

We are human and we will experience every emotion in our lifetime, but we are not our emotions alone, and we do not need to be controlled by our emotions either. Feeling content, good, and positive can happen and being healthy and happy is where our body will feel best and function best. 

We can feel that way every day, regardless of the the many feelings that 

come and go.   Below are a few GREAT strategies for finding your happiness ~

Name It to Tame It is a powerful way to manage our strong emotions. All it requires is noticing and labeling emotions as they’re happening. The act of identifying an intense emotion (“naming”) has the effect of reducing the stress and anxiety (“taming”) in the brain and the body that that emotion is causing.

Practicing mindfulness can also help us feel balanced. It's a reminder to stop and think 🤔 and appreciate all that we are experiencing in that moment. Mindfulness can help us calm our bodies and thoughts. Being more mindful means we can stay focused and in control of our thoughts and feelings. 

Practice Gratitude. Intentionally appreciating the things, people and experiences 

that bring us joy can improve our mood and feelings of happiness.

Remember to breathe deeply. Deep breathing can help relax your body and calm your mind. There are many different ways to practice, try a few fun ones HERE! The less tense you feel, the happier you'll be.

Get Outside! Spending time in nature can be rejuvenating and calming. You can try gardening, walking in the grass, or just sitting and reflecting quietly.

I can be mindful

Stopping, breathing, in and out

Still, calm and peaceful.

Haiku by S Sawyer 

ALL feelings really do matter. Everything we experience is part of what makes us us.  We CAN learn ways to feel more calm and happy and appreciate all that we feel and experience.

Positive Psychology 

Blissful Kids

November Is National Career Development Month

 

You might still be in elementary school but it’s never too early to think and talk about future job or career opportunities.

What is the difference between a job or career? A job, or occupation, is something you do to earn money. A career is a long-term occupation that you do that often requires special training or education.

You probably don’t know exactly what you want to “be” or “do” when you grow up and that is OKAY!  Our ideas, skills, interests and plans can change throughout our whole life.

Career Development Month is a great time to begin exploring! Below are resources that might be helpful and fun. 

Learn more about yourself! 

Try a Career Interest Quiz or the Multiple Intelligence Surveys and think about how you learn and what skills and interests you have. This will help you begin to think about careers that match your style.

Career Interest Quiz– A picture career interest survey
Interest Survey – Simple
Interest Survey- Detailed
Strengths Survey– For Older Students

Career Videos for Jobs/Careers

Click on the links below to view videos (varying in length) of people sharing information about their jobs and careers.
A- Z Career Lab (PBS)
Career One Stop (Many different careers!)
Careers In A Flash (ASCA)
Curious Kids Career Video (Marine Biology, Artist/Sculptor, etc.)

More Exploration Websites & Activities  

EPIC Career Book Collection

Bitmoji Room

Career Clusters Explained

K-12

Kids Money Career Videos

Career Word Scramble

Word Search

Job & Career Notes Outlines

Sometimes it is helpful to keep a written log of job & careers that interest us. Here is a simple organizer to help you as you begin to explore:

Career Explore Video/Book Organizer– K and up!

Your career is not just a job; it’s a way to make a difference in the world.
Dare to dream big and work to achieve it.

Knowing, Naming and Managing Feelings

           Have you ever felt silly, angry, HAPPY, worried or SAD  ? 

Do you wonder if you are the only one who has these feelings?

Well, you are NOT alone! Every one of us has big feeling sometimes: calm and happy feelings that are just right, excited feelings that make us wiggly, sad feelings that might make us want to hide or cry, angry feelings that we might want to shout out, and many more as you can imagine. There are MANY words for feelings, and most emotions can go into four categories, or zones:

Our emotions and feelings are one thing that makes us special. There are no bad feelings! It is important to pause, recognize and name your feelings. Then you can begin to understand what it is that makes you feel a certain way. 

When you want to feel more positive, happy and ready-to-learn, there are many strategies you can use! The easiest strategy is to focus on your breath: Slowly breath in as deeply as you can and fill your belly up, then slowly let your breath out and relax your belly too. You can also count up or count backwards, sign your favorite song,  practice your positive talk, and lots more! 

Remember, ALL of your emotions are important and make you, YOU.  

We learn to recognize, name and understand them 

so we can be our best self!

YOU are so important that there are LOTS of resources for you and your grown-ups to help you practice recognizing and managing your emotions and feelings:

Inside Out is a wonderful family movie to watch and talk about together.

Mind Yeti shares some wonderful research-based videos that help kids and their adults calm their minds and focus their attention. 

 

Cosmic Kids Yoga has fun yoga and breathing stories!

The Imagine Neighborhood is a wonderful podcast! Each episode tells a story that’s interesting, full of fun, and maybe even a little silly. The stories help us to understand the big feelings that come with growing up. They give us the words and the story, we LISTEN and build the pictures in our own minds. 

The Virtual Calm Down Room has some ideas for ways of calming down when you have BIG feelings.

In the Feelings Bitmoji Room you will find many different emotions and strategies to explore!

Do you want to make your own calm corner at home? Here you'll find a few ideas!