GEKA Bentleigh East

The Resilience Project and the GEM (gratitude, empathy and mindfulness) journal have been instilled into the program at GEKA Bentleigh East Kindergarten over the last few months.  The children have taken on the experiences and participated in shared and sustained conversations with great pride.  They have demonstrated an understanding of their own needs and learnt to recognise and name their feelings in the moment.  The connections made through the GEM journal have been significant in the context of both the curriculum and the opportunities for self-regulation that children can undertake independently, for example, trying mindful breathing when angry or frustrated. 

Through the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), educators are encouraged to support children’s learning holistically.  This refers to the consideration of the connection between the mind, body and soul, and teaching children to live in the present moment.  As we have progressed through each week of the program, there has been an identifiable shift in the consolidation of recognising their needs, classifying their emotions relative to the GEM journal feelings and their respective colours, and the children making a concerted effort to find ways to independently manage their emotions. This has been recognised in the form of creating an ‘emotions board’ where children can reflect on how they are feeling at the present time, immersing themselves in mindfulness practices and supporting the needs of the children when disagreements arise during play.

When consulting the team at the service about the impact of the program for both themselves as educators and in the context of the children’s social-emotional learning and development, Rina reflected on how one of the children were able to develop a sense of presence and extension on his concentration span when making the ‘mindful glitter jars’.  In this instance, the child was able to communicate that he wanted to see how long he could sit down and watch the glitter fall to the bottom of the jar.  This was particularly significant for this child’s ability to stay attentive to tasks and his recognition for the need to slow down in order to support his own needs. 

In discussing the GEM journal and The Resilience Project with children and families, it is evident the fundamental concepts surrounding mindfulness and emotional literacy are being implemented in a conscious manner.  One family noticed their child “has been speaking very openly about how she is feeling and is now using more descriptive words to explain how she is feeling. She is now also discussing how she can think about how others are feeling with accuracy”. 

The children have undertaken this experience with great interest and enthusiasm.  When I asked one of the children what she enjoyed the most about what we have learned, she eagerly replied “I like how now I can use the colours of the rainbow in my drawings to show how I am feeling”.  When I asked her why that was important to her, she replied that “we talk about the colours in lots of different ways, like with our hands (ASL - Australian Sign Language) and for our feelings at kinder so I can always find a way to talk to a friend or a teacher when I’m feeling sad or alone”. 

Blue Group

 Josephine:

My GEM reflection has been how receptive the children have been to the concepts of GEM (gratitude, empathy and mindfulness). By providing examples of language over the first few weeks, the children are preferring to being mindful regarding their own feelings and how their friends are feeling. I am thrilled to hear the children talking about being mindful in terms they understand (for example, you are making me feel sad (colour blue) when you don’t share). When this occurred, children are more likely to respond by acknowledging the expressed feelings.  The children’s improved ability to convey their feelings has had a deep effect on the behaviours of children, creating increased calmness and awareness of one another. 

Helen: As an early childhood educator at GEKA BEK, The Resilience Project is new to me, our kindergarten, children and their families.  We have embedded this into our everyday curriculum at our kindergarten. We are learning to complete the journal as a whole team, involving the children’s voices and links to the activities the children are doing. Having this journal is another way for us to practice GEM (Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness) in our program. By following the GEM journal, this has helped me become a better leader and role model to the children.

We interviewed children at our kindergarten about what they think is so important about showing Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness: 

Flynn: “We show respect to our teachers and friends. Sharing is being kind and if you show kindness people will play with you, but if you don’t, they won’t play”

Tin: “Always love your family and friends. Give them a hug and thank them”

Misha: “I show gratitude by playing with my brothers or making a cake for somebody in the sandpit”

Families were asked to respond to: what impact is your child participating in the GEM program having on your family?

“The book was a great touch but we quickly forgot to fill it in each day. Our family already focused on these concepts through our discussions and actions. Our son enjoys Monster mediation before bed through headspace. In terms of The Resilience Project, maybe to our son’s age or lack of interaction with kinder staff due to COVID, we haven’t seen or heard anything from this learning.  I am not sure what was discussed but I would have enjoyed more involvement with the families to help us support the concepts and learning”

“Our son understands the colours and refers to the chart at home from time to time”

“They show the details that they learnt in the centre and talk about it. To ask the questions and make sure we agree with his opinion”

I interviewed Racquel (educator) from the kindergarten:

“As we take into consideration holistic approaches to learning, considering the imperative understanding that the mind, body and soul are interconnected and work simultaneously to support social and emotional wellbeing, applying and embedding the GEM program has ensured we are accounting for the individual needs of the child to support their wellbeing, development and learning. Applying practices that enable the child to self-regulate and recognise their emotions in the moment enhance the children's capacity to reflect on their behaviours and contextualise the idea of being mindful both with others and during play. The Resilience Project has supported us to identify moments of significance, such as when children turn to the feelings board and change their picture from being reflective of one emotion to another, and when they tell us 'I'm feeling lonely, which makes me feel sad'. Our children are significantly more conscious of their needs, as well as the rights and needs of their peers, providing greater opportunities for children to collaborate and support one another”.

Stephen:  The project is introducing new vocabulary for the children as they now can be heard using terms like relaxing or being calm when explaining why they are doing certain activities. I have noticed some children trying to be still and use different senses when they are in play. For example, with one child, they told me that were looking for birds and they stopped for a moment to be still and see if they could listen out for any.

Janine:  The Resilience Project is also reminding me to look for ways that I can be responsive to the needs of each child in supporting them to be resilient and mindful in a way that is relevant and meaningful. When asking children for their thoughts on relaxing or being mindful, I have received mixed responses which reflect the personalities of those children. When I asked, “do you like relaxing?”, one child said, “it's nice. It is like sleeping all the time”. Another child said “relaxing is boring!”.

Yellow Group: 

The importance of showing Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness is now embedded in our daily rhythm. Each session we spend together has seen the children gradually embrace a new level of “thoughtfulness” in everything they do. Care, respect and kindness towards each other, the educators, the natural environment and the physical space has become a key message for Yellow Group. The weekly experiences have given the children a focus, and an opportunity for us as educators to intently listen and truly hear the voices of our group. Through the immersion in experiences such as Mindful glitter jars, Mindful Painting, Mindful Eating and Mindful Listening, the children have come to understand the language of GEM. Throughout our program the language of “Emotion”, which has been the direct effect of the Emotion Colour Chart, has been evident. Children painting at the easel have been heard talking about the colour purple and how it “means love” or “I need to add more yellow because I feel happy”. This has given the children a way to express their feelings, both positive and negative, and we have observed the children using this language rather than physical actions to solve conflict.

Gradual changes are being noticed each Wednesday. For example, meal times have become a peaceful time where children express gratitude for the meal they are eating, we encourage them to think about the person who carefully prepared it for them, what does their food taste like, how does it feel in our mouth, how does it make our body feel when we eat it? It’s an opportunity to just “stop, be in the moment and think”. 

Another example is when we gather for group time. The children now sit with respect and notice the actions of others, and how their actions might affect someone else’s feelings. A new level of respect is beginning to emerge which I believe is a direct result of TRP and the values it encompasses.

Life is busy, loud and fast and I believe that through the implementation of TRP the children have gained an awareness of how to self- regulate, re-set and regain their emotional control.   It has empowered them to truly find the beauty and possibility in each moment.

Vernessa: How the Mindfulness Glitter Jars helped Kaviya adjust to a change in environment and disruption at home.

Kaviya’s mummy having to go to hospital was upsetting and uncertain for her. She was worried about her mummy being sick and having to have an emergency operation. When dad dropped Kaviya off at kinder he explained that mum was in hospital, sending Kaviya into bursts of sadness.  She would often tell us “my mummy is sick, she’s in the hospital” and didn’t know when she would be back home. 

That day, we made Mindfulness Jars from The Resilience Project guide.  The children took turns to pump squirts of liquid detergent and glycerin into jars, and poured glitter through a funnel for measurement.  Kaviya enjoyed participating and experienced a sense of completion, independence and confidence.  The warmth of the water in the jar soothed her and provided comfort for her.  Kaviya happily walked around exclaiming “I love this, it’s so warm!  Look at the bubbles and glitter!  I will take it to show my mummy”. 

Denise: Whilst sitting with the children, helping them to learn and accomplish the control required to “paint” with an eyedropper onto paper towel, gave me the insight into how much information these young minds can absorb. The children were excited to participate although most didn’t know how to use an eyedropper. 

Gradually, after many attempts and explanations on squeezing softly and slowly, the children understood the mechanics involved. We used two colours, red and blue and they could watch the dye travel through the fibres of the paper to make another colour when the red and blue combined. The movement of the dye seemed to have a calming effect on the children that they wanted to do another painting and another. 

We have observed changes in our group of children since being involved in the Resilience Project, they are more respectful of others when we all gather together on the mat and calmer at home time too. 

Red group:

Kate, Rina, Supreet and Neelam

When handing the GEM journal out to families, we were excited to chat to them about this 

wonderful and valuable project.  We understood there would be many different ways in which families would use the journal. Asking families about their reflections on the project has shown to be important.  One thing that has stood out is families reporting children are talking about their feelings in different ways and providing more detail about how they feel.  Children are also taking the time to ask other family members how they are feeling. Empowering children from a young age to identify and verbalise their feelings has meant that when families were asked about it, their reflections were positive.

The voices of our families: 

“We are getting lots of I LOVE YOU at home”

“In the last couple of weeks, she has been verbalising how her day has gone. Especially If something has happened, she is able to talk about her feelings. She also tells us to take some slow breaths to make us feel better.”

“He is telling us how he feels in a very clear way. It is great!”

“The journal is very good; it is giving us ideas on what to do to help with the lockdowns. When we go for a walk we talk about how we feel about what we see and do.”

“It’s a great idea and she comes home telling us about being mindful. We are using these words to home now such as mindful, calm, happy, sad, kind. She tells us all about the glitter jars and how they help our brains to feel happy and think.”

“We do the journal together; it’s given us a special time to reflect on how we are going and the day.” 

“It’s all about the feelings and thinking how we have so much and are very happy with what we have and each other.”

“He has definitely been more helpful and told us the other day how he feels brave and very strong.” 

We were outside and she said “Stop Mum, listen!” She took a big breath and then said “See can you hear, it makes my brain still.” 

Educators’ reflection on learning: 

“This program has helped the children to do lots of daily simple mindfulness activities like showing their emotions using colour paper and emotional charts ,healthy eating, Glitter jars etc and by these activities they learn many good things like how to be calm, gentle, mindful, they also learn about their emotions and how to react and behave in such situations. This project has helped them to develop new skills as well as using their own knowledge and skills in doing and reacting on the different activities/situation, also to practice and develop their positive mental health strategies.

“I am really enjoying the resilience project with the children. Specially in this current situation when you can’t do certain things. It really helps me to express my feelings and stay positive. I really have been inspired by different activities which we do every week. Especially the glitter jar. Our children loved this activity and spent quality time with their peers.”

“I saw the incredible learning in the experience when the children went outside to listen to the sounds. They drew what they could see and hear. Spending time with each child meant that I could see what learning was occurring.  Some children took a little time to settle, but given a few seconds and encouragement, they began to think about what they could see, hear, and feel. I could see how the children where learning to appreciate what is around them. The birds, the feel of the Sun, the wind passing over their face. This practice in mindfulness meant that the children noticed these little things around them.  By drawing them, they were learning to develop a sense of appreciation which leads to gratitude. “

“The experience where the children had to identify what was being mindful and what was not being mindful was at first a little bit of a challenge.  As the ideas flowed the children began to understand how their actions, voice and body language outwardly showed their emotions. We also asked the children, “What do you think you would feel if …….? “   As the discussions flowed about what was mindful and what wasn’t mindful, the children began to talk about how they would react to some of the “not so mindful “actions by others. Some children were able to say how they would comfort others if they were upset. I could see how these experiences were helping the children to develop empathy.  The weekly learning experiences are slowly building the children’s skills. Week by week, the children are invited to talk about themselves, to develop and understanding of who they are. Slowly the children are learning how to practice being mindful.  Gratitude is a complex emotion, but the way the experiences are set out each week, it begins at the basics.  I could see how this project has positively impacted the children, when a child said to her friend who was crying, “We can go to tell teacher and then we can rest a little and think. It will be ok.” How wonderful l was this to hear! May be, before we embarked on this project, this situation might have gone in a similar way, except for one little comment at the end. The idea that the child said to her friend at the end “ It will be ok! “ It sounds simple enough, but in fact, thinking about it, the child has been mindful of how her friend was feeling. She was grateful to have a teacher nearby that they could go and tell. She was practising “empathy, by comforting her friend.   Then finally she concluded with everything, “It will be ok!” and of course clearly it was! I would say, this is The Resilience Project at Work. “