Our student council have been working with Richard, a teacher with the Health Team, to look at health and well being of the students at YMS. Early last week they came and asked the teachers if they could try something with the whole of Rimu. They said it was going to be colouring in, but with a purpose. Because student voice is important to us in Rimu, we said YES!
Friday afternoon rolled around and instead of silent reading, we all came down to the mat. Our wonderful student council gave us instructions.
- We were to find somewhere comfortable to sit.
- We were to do it silently, no talking to other people.
- We were to focus on our own colouring in, not looking at others.
- We could colour in with any colour we wanted and make it look however we wanted.
And most importantly
Well, we weren't sure what to expect. A few students looked at each other like this is a bit weird but everyone settled down very quickly with their pencil cases and started colouring.
Even Mrs Washbourn, the reliever and Mrs Spragg got some pencils and joined in.
Everyone was really engaged and very quiet. Clearly, Rimu took the rules seriously as hardly any words were spoken and everyone was very focused on the task.
After 20 minutes Mrs Spragg brought everyone back to the mat to talk about what it had been like, the feelings people had felt whilst doing the colouring and to show off the work so far. Most of the students talked about feeling calm and peaceful. Everyone gave it a thumbs up on the thumb-o-meter and when asked if this is something they would like to do again everyone said YES!
The student council are keen to teach other classes how to do this. Maybe your class would like to give it a try? If you do want to give it a go but need some help comment below and we can help you. If you do give it a go then let us know what you thought and felt during it.
P.S. Most hadn't finished so spent some more time getting it finished.
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