In the Nest
from Mme Dale, School Counselor
Have you been feeling a bit like this fortress lately?
Between the staying at home and the rain, it is easy to feel a bit isolated.
This picture is of the Pope's Palace in Avignon, France. It looks like he was hoping for some isolation when he had the place built. For us, all these days without seeing each other may be a bit hard. We miss each other!
Hey Kids
Need something to do? Let's have some fun. Here are some things to try:
Start by solving these riddles. The answers are at the very end of this section.
1. Riddle: What has to be broken before you can use it?
2. Riddle: I’m tall when I’m young, and I’m short when I’m old. What am I?
3. Riddle: What month of the year has 28 days?
4. Riddle: What is full of holes but still holds water?
5. Riddle: What question can you never answer yes to?
Make a Paper Mache Animal or Mask
What will you need? It is simple to make the "paste" with just flour and water. Use newspaper torn into strips and paint, feathers, glitter, etc. for decorating.
Make the paste by stirring together one cup of flour and two cups of water. Use a microwave or an oven to heat the paste for a short while, (just 20 seconds in the microwave,) and stir that paste till it is pasty!
Now build your animal or mask over a bowl or balloon. When it is dry, have fun decorating, et voila!
answers to riddles: 1) an egg 2) a candle 3) all of them 4) a sponge 5) are you asleep yet?
The Rain is Good for the Garden
Some Fun Things to Do
Make a Calming Glitter Jar
-first take a clear jar and fill it almost all the way with water.
-next, add a big spoonful of glitter glue, or glue and dry glitter to the jar.
-put the lid on, screw tightly and shake to make the glitter swirl.
Now imagine that glitter is like your thoughts when you are stressed, mad or upset. See how they swirl around and make it hard to see clearly? That's why it is so easy to make silly decisions when you are upset-because you are not thinking clearly.
Now let the glitter jar be still. It is like your mind when you are calm, your thoughts settle and you start to see things more clearly.
Slow Mo Balloons
-the aim of this game is to keep the balloon off the ground. In order to keep it in the air, work together to touch the balloon very gently imagining it is very fragile
-try doing this and doing it in slow motion
Stomp the Balloon
-blow up several medium or small balloons
-tie a short string to each balloon and then to a person's ankle
-say "go" and try to pop the other peoples' balloons by stomping on them.
Create a Touch Bag
-place several small, interestingly textured objects in a bag like a pillow case
-offer the bag for your partner who, with closed eyes, can feel what is in the bag and try to guess what it is.
Blindfold Taste Test
-have a partner blindfolded, and holding their nose, taste a variety of spoonfuls of food
-see if you can confuse them with a variety of textures, without smell it is hard to tell some foods apart.
For Kids and Parents
Have you listened to any of these wonderful soothing bedtime podcasts? Peace Out is a mindfulness source for children for slowing down, relaxing and feeling calm.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peace-out
Looking for some nice stories to read together? In these lovely recordings the books are being read aloud.
– Books About Feelings:
– Books About Kindness:
The OSU Master Gardeners are putting on some good events including a zoom for beginning veggie gardeners on May 28 at 3pm. You can sign up at this link:
This is a Good Time to Look at Our Habits
It could be useful and fun to talk about your habits with your family. You know each other so well, and notice each others' every habit. The current situation has a tremendous amount of repetition built in as options for activities have been closed down, and most of us are doing fewer things, and doing those things more often. That creates a really good time for setting up healthy routines and building in habits we desire to have. Good habits are precious and have a huge impact over a person's well being over time.
When I was living up in Seattle, I picked up a habit of going to a lot of estate sales. There I was often in the house of an elderly person or couple who had lived there for as much as 40 or 50 years, and one could not help but see the impact of their habits. Those habits ranged from quite touching and beautiful to being very sad. It made me feel that it is quite important to have a handle on one's habits. Be conscious of your habits, and know how to work with them.
It is easy to feel stuck and this time can present a lot of that feeling with the daily repetition. To escape that feeling of being stuck, you can identify what you want and what might be a step in the right direction. Take that step down in size to a mini step, something very doable and start doing that mini step as a new routine till it becomes a habit. The repetition we are experiencing this spring really presents a profoundly great time to build good habit. Conversely, bad habits are distressing and though we can pretend we are oblivious to them, they sap our energies. Knowing how to work with our habits is a life skill, empowering us to get what we want to to be well.
4j Wrap Around Team Assistance
Parents-
The district has put together a team which is pooling resources for families who have taken a financial hit due to the pandemic. You can access these social services with offerings like food and housing help, EWEB bill credits, pandemic insurance assistance, etc by letting one of us know you could use some resources. Let a teacher, Mme Courtney or myself know confidentially and we will be happy to connect you to these services.
Take care, Laura Dale