Author: C

Elmvale Primary School

The six principles of nurture

Children’s learning is understood developmentally.
The classroom offers a safe base.
The importance of nurture for the development of self-esteem.
Language is a vital means of communication.
All behaviour is communication.
The importance of transition in children’s lives.

Wellbeing wheel www.scotland.gov.uk

Turus Room

I understand there are people I can talk to and there are a number of ways in which I can gain access to practical and emotional support to help me and others in a range of circumstances.
Curriculum For Excellence: Health and Wellbeing > Outcomes.
HWB 0-03a/HWB 1-03a/ HWB 2-03a

Elmvale Primary School
712 Hawthorn Street
Glasgow, G22 6ED
0141 558 5238
Glasgow—working towards a nurturing city.
Phone: 0141 558 5238

Parents
Child School

Elmvale Primary a nurturing school within Glasgow a nurturing city.

Our feelings tree.
How are you feeling today?
Every morning the first activity we do together is to ask how each other how we are feeling. We sit in our seating area and pass a bucket full of leaves. The child who has the bucket is the first to ask and it is then passed around the group and the child who has the bucket is last to express his/her feelings. As our school is called Elmvale Primary our bucket is full of elm leaves.
“How are you feeling today?”
“I am feeling tickled pink.”
Why are you feeling tickled pink?”
Our feelings tree is based on the book “I am a rainbow” by Dolly Parton.
Each leaf colour denotes a feeling in the book.
Tickled pink—happy
Red—angry
Blue- sad
Green—jealous
Yellow—scared
Rosy— very happy.

Our emotions mat.
The emotions mat is a very versatile and useful tool in the work we do with all children in emotional literacy including children who have little or no English (in their EAL group).
The feelings game.
All can play.
You will need: Emotions mat, large die
Two main participants. – One child(1)to throw die and one child (2)to be the “pawn” to move about the board.
Shoes are not worn when using mat.
Rules of the game.
Child 2 stands on the centre face and everyone asks “How are you feeling?” this child then chooses a face to stand on a face and then child 1 throws the die and depending on the number of spots directs child 2 to move either right or left and we all count together the number of moves. Depending on the face that is landed on we all give an occasion/ object etc, which make us feel that emotion, e.g. sad face – (nurture teacher) I feel sad when boys and girls fall out and don’t share toys. The game is played until all of the nurture children and adults who are playing have had a turn.
The game is played until all of the nurture children and adult(s) who are playing have had a turn.

Used with a story. – The Rainbow Fish.
This story was used with a primary 1 group who had social interaction issues.
The story was read to the children, they had chosen to sit on the mat on a face while the story was being read to them.
When it came time to recall the story, the children placed the book on the emotions mat face relevant to that part of the story, e.g. sad – the rainbow fish was sad because no other fish would talk to him or play with him.
Bereavement counselling.
In the school we had a P3 pupil die after a serious illness. The mat was used with her peers to break the news initially of her death and with the use of small soft toys (MacDonald Happy meal soft toys); a toy was placed on the relevant faces as we went through the emotions relating to death. Ending on the happy face— happy memories are left. The mat was also used with the P6 class as the child’s sibling was in that class. The class sat round the mat and linked hands making a chain- the talk was about how strong a chain can be and then about missing links. The same procedure then followed as the previous class and emphasis was put on the shy face as that would be how a lot of the P6’s would be feeling when she came back – not knowing how to interact with her.
These are just some of the examples as to how we have used this mat. How you use it is up to you.
J Davidson. 2014