Peace Club is more popular than ever!

If you have a child in second grade or up you may have heard them talk about Peace Club.  Peace Club is different from the weekly Peace Classes that all of the kids at Lafayette take.  Peace Club is a special alternative lunch and recess program for 2nd - 5th graders.  It is a mixed-age group of anywhere from 20-50 kids that has become popular with kids who sometimes struggle with social skills, with kids who love to do arts and crafts, with kids who love to play with legos and magna-tiles and kids who like to be in a smaller environment with a higher teacher-child ratio.  Peace Club is led by Peace Teacher Linda Ryden, and the school counselors Jillian Diesner and Rashida Mosby.

Everyone who comes to Peace Club makes a promise to treat everyone else with kindness and respect,  to make sure that conflicts are worked out peacefully, and that everyone is included.  Some older children are asked to be Peace Club helpers.  If you were to drop by Peace Club you would probably be surprised by how noisy it is.  It is not "peaceful" on the surface.  But there is so much going on there that is contributing to making Lafayette a more peaceful place.  The children eat lunch together getting to know children in other grades and classes.  After lunch they have lots of options designed to encourage cooperation and social interactions.  Some children choose to make the wonderful peace posters that line the halls at Lafayette.  Many children choose to join together to make fantastic structures.  Some children play board games or guessing games or Twister. Peace Club is a welcoming community-within-a-community at Lafayette.

Check out this slideshow for a glimpse of the fun that is Peace Club!

Halloween Candy Drive for the Homeless

Halloween Candy Drive for the Homeless

The kids at Lafayette are a very generous bunch and that spirit really comes out at holiday time.  No, I'm not talking about those winter holidays, at Lafayette Halloween is time to think about generosity and compassion.  Sure we dress up as scary monsters, or favorite storybook or movie characters, but Halloween at Lafayette is about helping others.  

Our very own Kenny family - Guy, Maya, and Amalia - have been collecting Halloween costumes to share with homeless children.  What a creative and fun way to make a child in crisis happy!  

Why College Awareness in Elementary School?

You might be wondering why your child has been coming home talking about "The Path to College" this week when it seems so very far away. For many of them, it is far away. We calculated that Pre-K students will start college in the year 2028 and complete a four-year degree in the year 2032--wow!

Building Resiliency In Children

Greetings Parents, Families and Staff.  The seasons are changing and so are your children.  This is a perfect time to read the tips below on how to increase resiliency in your children.  It will help them learn skills needed to deal effectively with everyday stress and frustration.  Enjoy!  Harriet Lurensky Kuhn, M.A., M.Ed., NCSP-Lafayette Psychologist

 

Building Resiliency: Helping Children Learn to Weather Tough Times

Adversity is a natural part of life. At some point, we all face difficulties, such as family problems, serious illness, a personal crisis, or a painful loss. Being resilient is important to dealing with adversities like these. While most parents hope that their children never face extreme adversity, successfully facing tough situations can actually foster growth and give children the skills to be more resilient in the future.

Lafayette's Peace of Mind Program Featured in Documentary about Mindfulness

On Wednesday, October 8, three filmmakers spent the day at Lafayette interviewing students and staff and filming Peace Classes for a documentary about mindfulness.   They were so impressed with our Peace of Mind program and they were really impressed with our students.  The kids did a beautiful job of demonstrating how we practice mindfulness in Peace class (even with cameras rolling and microphones hanging over their heads) and they were able to articulate how they practice mindfulness outside of Peace Class. They talked about using mindfulness to help them deal with anger at siblings, with the stress of test-taking, to help them focus while playing sports, to be better friends, and to be kinder to themselves and others.  The filmmakers couldn't get enough of our amazing students here at Lafayette.  Click on this link to find out more about this upcoming documentary and stay posted for more information about when it will be finished.  http://ajoyfulmind.com/

- Linda Ryden

Every Day is Peace Day at Lafayette!

This past Sunday was the 30th annual International Day of Peace as established by the United Nations. It is a day to call for non-violence and peaceful interactions among all peoples and nations. 

We are so fortunate to be at a school like Lafayette, where we can celebrate Peace Day every day. There are no other schools in the metro DC area that devote as much time, energy, and resources to teaching kids about peace and conflict resolution as we do here at Lafayette.

September Back-to-School Transitions

Greetings Parents! Welcome back to school year 2014-2015.  It is now the middle of September and your child has already been in school several weeks.  The weather is beginning to transition from summer to fall.  Change is always happening in each of us and in the world around us.  We instill resiliency and teach our children success by helping them adjust to change.  Here are a few tips for a successful adjustment to school this year.  Enjoy!  

Harriet Lurensky Kuhn, M.A., M.Ed., NCSP, LPC.   Psychologist, Lafayette Elementary School and Kozy Girl, CGC, AKC/TDI Therapy Dog

Peace Classes Underway!

Welcome to another peaceful year at Lafayette!  Lafayette's unique mindfulness and social emotional learning program, Peace of Mind, is in full swing.  Peace Classes started with Ms. Ryden teaching second - fifth grade and Ms. Diesner teaching our Early Childhood grades.  We are learning about mindfulness and having fun with some "getting to know you" activities.  In fifth grade we watched a wonderful video about kindness (actually a life insurance commercial from Thailand!).  The kids loved it so much that I told them that I would post it here on our blog so that they could share it with you.  I hope you enjoy it.  Be prepared to shed a happy tear.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjLYwZkQ-rw
 
If you are new to Lafayette, you might be wondering what the Peace program is all about.  There is a description of the program on the school website (www.lafayettehsa.org) and you are always free to come in and check it out for yourself.  Kids seem to get it intuitively, but parents sometimes ask me what Peace Class is all about.  They wonder if it's some kind of hippie throwback.  In fact, Peace Class is a cutting edge program based on the latest research about how children learn and grow and thrive.  We all know that it's no longer enough to teach the 3Rs.  In this fast-paced and sometimes violent world it is crucial that we give our children the tools they need to be happy, mindful, emotionally intelligent, and able to move through the world peacefully and with confidence.

We could call it "Conflict Resolution, Mindfulness, Emotional Intelligence, Anger Management, Anxiety Reduction, Empathy Development, Communication, Compassion, Bullying Prevention, Friendship Skills, Assertiveness Training, and Make the World a Better Place Class" but that's a bit unwieldy so we settle on "Peace Class" instead.  So try to let go of any '60's-era connotations you may have of the word peace and see if for what it is here at Lafayette: A class that helps us to educate the whole child.  A class devoted to the heart and the mind. A class that will give your child some of the most important skills they will ever learn.

- Linda Ryden

Welcome back to another great year at Lafayette!

It's finally here - the day parents dream about all summer - the first week of school! It passed in a blinding rush of hellos, hugs, laughter, "how-was-your-summer"s, and a perhaps few tears too. We've had a lot of fun seeing all the students back for another year, and are beginning to learn the names and faces of our new students too. We are so excited to be back and to have many wonderful changes happening at the same time. For an overview of the programs and services the Oasis team will be providing this year, click here. We are gearing up for a great school year, and here are just some of the upcoming events we'll be celebrating together soon:

September

·       Friday 9/5 and Monday 9/8: New Student Lunch Bunches for grades 1-5 (schedule forthcoming)

·       September is Peace Month

·       Weekly Peace classes begin in all grades

·       Friday 9/26: Wear your peace items to school day

October

·       October is College Awareness Month

·       Peace classes will include discussions on college & career

·       Friday, 10/24: Wear a college T-shirt day

·       TBA: First Oasis Advisory Group  (OAG) meeting

Stay tuned for more information on these exciting events, and drop by the Oasis to say hi if you haven't already. We'd love to see you! --Jillian

Mindfulness At Home Workshop

We had a great time at our Mindfulness at Home workshop the other night!  A nice group of parents gathered together to experience some of the mindfulness practices that we do in Peace Class.  They were so relaxed by the end of the hour that we all floated home!  I shared a bunch of resources that you can use to learn about and practice mindfulness at home.  It would be so great if the kids were able to keep up their mindfulness practice over the summer.  The resource list is below.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions at linda.ryden@dc.gov.  I'll schedule another parent workshop in the Fall.

Resources for practicing mindfulness at home

Building Emotional Intelligence, Linda Lantieri (with cd of guided mindfulness exercises)

Sitting Still Like a Frog: Mindfulness Exercises for Kids (and their parents), Eline Snel  (book and cd)

A Still Quiet Place: A Mindfulness Program for Teaching Children and Adolescents to Ease Stress and Difficult Emotions, Amy Saltzman, MD

Ten Percent Happier , Dan Harris . 

Story Books:

Ahn’s Anger, Gail Silver

Steps and Stones, Gail Silver

Moody Cow Meditates, Kerry MacLean

Mindful Monkey, Happy Panda, Kerry MacLean

Websites:

 

MINDS Incorporated www.mindsincorporated.org

Mindful.org – Website of Mindful Magazine. Offers tons of resources about mindfulness

Mindfulschools.org