Balance the seasonal swirl with moments of settling…

This time of year, the structure, habits and ‘feel’ of a school day can start to get a bit more chaotic and blurry can’t they? 

The glitter and performances, the mood and energy levels of the children (and yourself), weather and timetable changes.

If you can recognise this seasonal swirl, you can also practise seasonal settling. Adding moments into each day where you let things slow a bit, quieten a bit and settle a bit. 

As a teacher myself, I was always uncomfortable with moments of pausing. I would always fill it with more doing tasks: quiet reading, watching video clips, playing audio stories or art/drawing activities.

This I now realise is MORE DOING.

If I could use what I know now and put it in place in my classroom, I wouldn’t provide additional tasks. I would simply share and show a glitter jar (or snow shaker) and discuss the need for seasonal settling.

Once I’d shared, I would allow some moments of this in the school day. Little and often, dropped into each day until the end of term. I’d do this for myself and for the children because the rest of the day is higher speed, more noise, more doing, more thinking and more activity.

Balancing out the seasonal swirl shouldn’t be hard for you or uncomfortable. So to make it as easy as possible, I’ve recorded a video you can play directly to your class and children so you can all have a go together. 

If you’re looking for a seasonal craft activity – make winter glitter jars so they have them to use at home too. All you need is an empty jar, some water and glitter. 

Here’s to a swirling, fun end of term with moments of settling embedded!

Enjoy.
Jo 😊