Social emotional Learning corner

Content by Mrs. Blaisdell

September 27th

Your amazing scholars have been learning Brain Science! 😊 You should be oh so impressed.

Why learn about our brains?

When we know more about how our brains function to help us learn and regulate our emotions; then we can be more successful in the ways we learn and manage our emotions in our school day and in life.

Kindergarten and first are learning the basics of our brain’s job and how we can take care of our brains.

Take care of your brains with adequate amounts of sleep—exercise—giving and receiving love/connection—reading or looking at books. 😊

In grades 2nd – 5th we are focusing on three parts of our brain that lead to learning and emotional regulation and we will also learn about neurons and neurological pathways:

The Prefrontal Cortex

The Hippocampus

The Amygdala—*The Amygdala is a set of jellybean sized structures deep in our brain, at the ends of our hippocampus.

*The Amygdala is the brain’s security guard. Ancient human brains had amygdala that responded to unsafe situations with the Fight—Flight—Freeze response to keep them safe in life threatening situations. (like being chased by a saber-tooth tiger 😲)

*Our modern human brains sometimes react with Fight—Flight—Freeze response when we feel unsafe, as well as when we feel stressed or less in control than we would like to be.

*It is important to know that our “thinking brain” shuts down when the Amygdala is in charge. Our thinking and decision-making brain is disengaged and not able to help us to make proper decisions about our behavior and emotional regulation. We must calm the Amygdala with a pause and with breathing. (oxygen stops heading to our thinking brain to prepare for Fight—Flight—Freeze and we can get the thinking brain back in control with deep and relaxing breathes)

*We need our Amygdala to keep us safe. However, we do not need our Amygdala reacting when we are simply in a stressful situation or when we are not getting our way.

*Simply being educated about the Amygdala’s functions and what an Amygdala “take-over” might look like in ourselves will empower students. Understanding the concrete things we can do to reengage our thinking brains and calm the Amygdala will also empower students with strategies that they can enact themselves.

Tackle an “Amygdala Take-Over” or an “Amygdala Hijack” with deep breathing.

Reengage your Thinking Brain to Make Decisions for SUCCESS!

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