Thoughts and Feelings

These are just two of the fun concepts we've been learning about in Peace Classes for the lower grades these past few weeks! We have continued practicing our mindful breathing at the start of each class, this time using the idea of a thought bubble to help us focus our minds on listening to the bell and our breathing. Each child drew his or her own "Happy Thoughts" in a thought bubble, and I encouraged the kids to try focusing on those thoughts the next time they are feeling sad or angry. This week we also watched a video starring Elmo using deep belly breathing to get his "mad monster" out and feel like himself again. The kids practiced breathing along with Elmo to help ourselves feel calm. We also learned many of the names we have for different feelings, and how being able to name our feelings can actually help us feel better! This is not just touchy-feely stuff, there are research studies that have supported the idea that when we can name our strong emotion, it no longer has the same power over us. So parents, encourage your kids to tell you how they're feeling, use the deep breathing when needed, and to try focusing their thoughts on happy things. Have a great weekend!
-Jillian

Lafayette's Mindfulness Program in the news

Valerie Strauss devoted her blog last week to mindfulness in schools.  You may have heard that Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda is about to launch a school-wide mindfulness program.  In an article in the Post about the Whitman program they mentioned that Whitman is the first school in the region to have such a program.  But they didn't know about Lafayette!  We wrote to the paper and right away Valerie Strauss blogged about the Whitman program and then highlighted our program.  She even quotes from our own website!  Mindfulness training is really taking off all over the country and Lafayette is on the cutting edge.  Read all about it here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/10/10/students-at-overachieving-school-getting-anti-stress-lessons/

If you have any questions about our school-wide mindfulness program feel free to contact Linda Ryden (linda.ryden@dc.gov) or Jillian Diesner (jillian.diesner@dc.gov)

Thanks!


Linda Ryden
Teaching Peace
Lafayette Elementary School

Peace Classes, Peace Club, and Recess Peace Team

This week we continued our Peace Classes, and each student at Lafayette now has been assigned a kindness pal. Their kindness pal is someone we randomly assigned, and during Peace class the pals sat together, got to know one another better, and thought about ways they can show kindness to each other during the week. Each teacher has a list of the class kindness pals, so if your child doesn't remember who it is you can always ask the teacher. Encourage your child to remember to do something kind for their pal next week. It can be an act as simple as pushing in a chair for someone, or as involved as making them cookies (which someone actually did this week!) These pals will change monthly for PK, K, and 1st grades and weekly for 2nd through 5th grades.

During recess, we have Peace Club on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Kids have to get a pass from their teacher and then can head down to the LAP room (across from the gym) for the entire 12-1 block of time. We eat lunch together and then play games, build, draw, bead, or do a variety of other cooperative activities. It's a great way to get to know kids in a smaller, more controlled environment than the noisy chaos of the playground. And speaking of the playground, this week we also started our Recess Peace Team activities on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On these (really hot) days we held relay races on the field, and any kid who wanted to join in was able to do so. I walked around the field gathering kids who didn't seem to be playing with anyone, and even if they didn't want to race they came along for our cheering section. During each of the three 20-minute recess periods we had at least 25 kids racing and cheering, which was wonderful to witness. Between Peace Club and Recess Peace Team, we are able to provide alternative recess activities to over 250 kids each week! If your child is having any difficulties navigating recess, please encourage him or her to join in these activities; there's always room for a few more. Have a great weekend!
-Jillian

Magna-tiles at Peace Club

Two Exciting Events

Last week we hosted three "new student lunch bunches" for all our new friends at Lafayette (grades 1-5). Taking the time to sit down and get to know our new students is always a fun activity, and this group was no exception. We have approximately 40 new students this year, from as close as Oyster-Adams elementary school here in DC and as far away as Singapore. We hope that they each feel welcomed and happy to be at  Lafayette. Parents of Lafayette old-timers, please remind your children to reach out to these new students in any way they can, and reach out to their parents, too. New parents, please feel free to contact us if your child is having any trouble acclimating to his/her new school; we are here to help!

The second exciting event will get started this week. Our "Recess Peace Team" (RPT for short) will soon kick off with structured activities on the field and blacktop for students in grades 1-3. We will be training a selected group of 5th grade students, who will then be on the playgrounds on Tuesdays and Thursdays to provide games and activities for kids who want to join in. Our goals for RPT are to teach leadership skills to older kids, help include younger kids into recess activities who may otherwise not have anyone to play with, and to minimize conflicts that often arise on the playground during free play. If you have any feedback on this program as it develops, feel free to share it!

-Jillian

Pathways to Peace at Lafayette 2013-2014

We have been hard at work this summer getting ready for a new and exciting year at Lafayette. As you know, we have had the Peace Education program for the upper grade students in years past. This year, however, we will be expanding that program to all grade levels (including Pre-K!) Of course, some age-level differences will exist, but we are very excited to have this program be school-wide. We are using a variety of resources, including Linda Ryden's own Peace Education curriculum, the MindUP curriculum, The Incredible, Flexible You curriculum, and other activities we've designed ourselves. We have combined the major tenets of these resources into one comprehensive school-guidance program, which we are calling Pathways to Peace. For more information, including a short video on mindfulness education,click on the link that will take you to the presentation we gave to all staff during our professional development week. Please let us know if you have any questions, and we look forward to a great year as we dive into this together!

-Jillian, Rashida, and Linda

A Summer of Sibling Rivalry

Hello and welcome back to another great year at Lafayette! I hope you all had a wonderful summer and enjoyed having more time with your kids. As for me, I spent a good part of the vacation dealing with the dreaded sibling rivalry, which has not appeared in our house before. My two boys are spread out in age, 7 and 2, and I thought by doing that I had avoided having major problems between them as they grow up. Boy was I wrong! This summer, the two year old was finally able to assert himself, grab toys, shout "it's mine!" and just generally be an adorable/terrible two-year-old. My 7-year old could not handle it, and a lot of screaming/yelling/fighting and general chaos ensued. Thus I spent the summer refereeing between the two. I had to actually dust off my counselor's hat and develop behavior plans for them both, complete with positive and negative reinforcers as well as punishments. Yes, it was that bad. I'm happy to say that things got a lot better after that, but there were only about three weeks left to the summer by that point. Suffice it to say, I am THRILLED to be back at work this fall! I'm sure many other parents have dealt with sibling rivalry in your house, and would love to hear strategies that worked for you. Please feel free to either comment on this blog or email me at jillian.diesner@dc.gov
-Jillian

Summer Happiness

Well, the year is almost over and summer is upon us! For most kids (and teachers), this is a time of extreme happiness and excitement. We get to spend lots of time doing all those things we daydreamed about during the long, sometimes dreary, days of school. Swimming at the community pool, visiting grandparents, beach vacations, lazy days reading books, sports and fun summer camps. For some, though, the change in routine can cause extra stress and uncertainty. For parents who still have to work this can certainly feel stressful, and for kids who feel best with lots of routine and structure in place it can also cause stress.

For our family, I make out a "daily summer schedule" that we try to follow each weekday. It includes an outside activity (chosen from a list we've already agreed upon: museums, libraries, pool, etc.), an academic activity (writing or math because that's what my son needs to work on), some quiet time in the afternoon (no screens allowed!) and ends with work on our "special project." Last year the special project was putting a vegetable garden in our backyard, something the whole family agreed we wanted to have and we were all willing to work on bit by bit. Since we spent most of the summer cleaning out an area of the yard and building a frame for it, by the time the plants went in it was already late in the summer and the garden didn't yield much. But this year our hard work will pay off and our nice garden area is already starting to bloom with pumpkin vines and little yellow flowers that will become cherry tomatoes (the kids chose these seeds, not me.) I've got lots of ideas for our "special project" for this summer, including writing and illustrating an adventure book, but will let the kids choose something that feels meaningful to them. I'm hoping this teaches the value of hard work and putting effort into something that may not necessarily give immediate gratification. Having this routine in place helped keep us all a little more sane and happy, and days when we couldn't follow the schedule due to doctor's appointments or other events we were all a little "off." I'm hoping to implement the same type of routine this summer, but know it will change a bit because the boys are each a year older and will have different interests.

I plan to update this blog from time to time over the summer, not because anyone reads it, but just to help keep myself in some sort of routine and connected to work. I'll also be reading all the great curriculum materials I bought for the fall and trying to map out how I will teach peace, kindness, and mindfulness to 4 year olds :-) Here's a link to one blog I also follow, Raising Happiness, that is full of great ideas, articles, and resources for creating and sustaining child and family happiness. However you spend the summer with your families, I wish you a wonderful time filled with lots of joy and happiness!

Jillian

Teaching Peace Program Overview

To view a great presentation of Linda's program and get a good idea of what happens during Peace Classes here at Lafayette each day, click on this link (Prezi format).

2013 Pennies for Patients Exciting News!

We just found out some very exciting news: Lafayette Elementary School was the TOP fundraising school this year in all of D.C. Public Schools! Our final total was over $7,000, which was more than double our original goal. We will get a special plaque recognizing our status, and Nurse Cockrell and I were also chosen as the "2013 Distinguished Coordinators for DC" based on our rookie status (neither of us have ever done this fundraiser before) and the amount raised. One classroom was chosen by LLS to attend a Nationals Baseball game on June 22, and that class is Mrs. Harn's 2nd grade students (also our 3rd place winners overall for the school). All of our students and parents can also attend this game at a reduced price by using this link. We want to give a big thanks to YOU parents for supporting this fundraiser and helping us achieve these goals. We couldn't have done it without your support (and of course, your pennies!)

Social Thinking--What is it?

Thanks to the generosity of our HSA's professional development fund for teachers, I just got back from attending a great two-day conference in Baltimore. The topic was on Social Thinking, which is a phrase coined by author, activist, and SLP Michelle Garcia Winner. Social thinking is about much more than basic social skills, which are mostly language based, as in: "I say hi, you say hi back" and getting students to have a conversation of at least three exchanges. Social thinking includes teaching kids how our brains work, what thoughts are, and how our thoughts and the thoughts of others are influenced by our behaviors. It's a much more in-depth and holistic way of approaching social learning, and one I've been dabbling in for the past two years with students here at Lafayette. At this conference given by Michelle, I learned about a new social thinking curriculum for younger kids ages 4-7 called "The Incredible Flexible You." This is a basic way of teaching ALL kids about social skills such as identifying thoughts and feelings, figuring out what to do in a group, using your eyes to make smart guesses about others, keeping your body and brain in the group (what we would call "self-control") and using your whole body to listen. While I've incorporated parts of these concepts into character ed classes this year and last, I am really excited to be able to teach them in a more formal way in the upcoming school year. Other plans for next year include the "Teaching Peace" curriculum that Linda Ryden is currently using with 2-5th grades, and which I'll write more about later. Please feel free to contact me for more information about Social Thinking, plans for next year, or anything else you have on your mind! Happy Friday; it's nice to be back in the building.