Over the last six weeks, Year 1 has been exploring MindUP, as part of our PSHCE (Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education) programme. MindUP teaches children the link between their brain and their behaviour and learning.
We’ve had a lot of fun exploring the three different parts of our brain. One helps us make good choices (Prefrontal Cortex). One helps protect us from danger (Amygdala). One saves our memories and learning (Hippocampus). Click on the poster to learn more about these.
The children, in particular, have liked learning about the ‘police dog’ that lives in our Amygdala and protects us when we are feeling super mad, frustrated, sad or scared. The children acted out the three choices (Fight, Flee or Freeze) we can make when our brain isn’t able to make mindful choices.
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- Fight
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- Flee
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- Freeze
The children have enjoyed learning about their brain and exploring new vocabulary, such as mindful and unmindful thoughts and actions. The children wrote some excellent examples of these thoughts and actions, which are posted in our classroom.
We’ve also explored different feelings and emotions:
We have had a lot of fun learning different steps to calm down when we feel super angry, sad, frustrated or upset. Some of these steps include: deep breathing and counting to 20 slowly. We set up a ‘Cool-off’ corner in our classroom, complete with soft pillows and feelings books to help create an atmosphere of calmness, mindfulness and peacefulness.
Watch and listen to us sing our brain song:
Please do pop by our classroom to see our MindUP corner! We’ve love to show you our ‘brain in a jar’ and the children would love to tell you more about about MindUP in person.