Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is the process in which students acquire the skills, and knowledge necessary to facilitate the development of healthy identities, manage emotions and learn to make responsible and caring decisions.
Lafayette School Principal, Cheryl Russo, shared that SEL is as important for students as academic concepts. Russo integrates SEL learning at Lafayette through individual, small group, school-wide and home school connection lessons and activities. Calm Cougars is how students start the day and transition from recess and has become an integral part of the school day. During Calm Cougars, students watch a video or participate in a short meditation that encourages them to be in tune with themselves and transition into learning mode.
During fourth and fifth grade students are forming a clearer sense of who they are, defining goals and plans, and navigating challenges more independently. To help students navigate this path, Russo kicked off 2023 with an assembly that focused on the impact of peer pressure and how it can shape our views of right and wrong. During the assembly students tried to convince others that what they were seeing on the screen was a banana even though the object was clearly something different. The more students insisted the object was a banana the more the other students started to think that maybe the others were right and they must be wrong. Russo used this simple example to demonstrate the influence of peers and to highlight that “following the crowd” isn’t always the right answer.
Developing strong friendships is also important for fourth and fifth graders, but can be challenging. To encourage students to expand their social circles, students participated in “Mix it Up Day”. Students interacted with grade-level peers as they cycled through team building, mindfulness, story telling, and art activities with different groups of students. Russo brought the whole school together at the beginning and end of “Mix it Up Day” to set the tone and provide an opportunity for students to reflect on what they had learned. One student shared in her reflection that she learned that she could work with people even if they were not friends. She continued, “I also learned that teamwork is important. Also I learned that you shouldn't be afraid of what other people think of you.”
Lafayette builds on the Social and Emotional Learning skills that students have been developing throughout their lives and what they have been taught in kindergarten through third grades. Students at Southern Boulevard and Milton Avenue School also held a “Mix it Up Day”. Students viewed a Read Aloud -“Beautiful Oops” a story about turning a mistake into something beautiful, which was followed by a discussion. Students also participated in a collaborative art project where students received a piece of paper with a paint splatter on it and then created something beautiful out of it. Students at Washington Avenue created a kindness wall where students wrote or drew a way that they could show kindness.
