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Rainbow Club

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The children came to their last Rainbow Club sessions (for this academic year) this week. We wanted to celebrate and recognise all that they had learned throughout the year with us in Rainbow Club.

We started with circle time activities that explored ‘what makes them unique’ and labelled their character strengths. We then shared compliments using the character strength cards and ended the session making our ‘I am’ flowers. The children got to take their craft flowers home as a reminder of all the wonderful things that make up who they are as a person.  

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What is Rainbow Club?

All Saints Nurture group is called the Rainbow Club. In Rainbow Club small groups of children take part in lots of different activities. We have Circle Time, social games and role play. In Rainbow Club, children are encouraged to learn through exploration, curiosity, problem solving and creativity with the use of sensory play. Children also enjoy messy play and water play.

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During Rainbow Club we discuss ‘big feelings’; what they are, how they make us feel, how our body can give us clues to how we feel and how to regulate ourselves so we can manage our big feelings and keep ourselves and others safe. We learn that it is ok to feel angry, that everyone has worries and that we are all unique.

 

We have looked at ways in which we can get the uncomfortable and jingly feelings out of our bodies. We made calming down bottles from water, baby oil, glitter and food colouring. They help us to take a mindful moment by giving them a shake and watching the glitter resettle to the bottom.  

 

We have also made our own stress balls with orbeez, water, transparent balloons and oil. We first soaked the orbeez in water overnight and watch them grow. Then with a lot of skill and patience we filled our balloons with the balls and added oil and securely tied them. They are a great sensory experience and fun to make. Who doesn’t need a stress ball in their life?

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During Rainbow Club we build our friendship skills; learning to share with others, let others go first, be happy for our friends when they win and to compromise and think of others feelings. We also learn how to manage falling outs and conflicts by scaling our problems and using problem solving techniques to find ‘win-win’ solutions. We label our problems a ‘cloudy but cool’ problem, a ‘heating up problem’ and a ‘blazing hot problem’- this helps us decide on the next step towards solving a conflict. This all helps us get on with others better and take other’s feelings into consideration.  

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During our Food Tasting Around the World session we tasted ‘snack’ food from China, Thailand, Japan, Mexico, India, France, Italy and Spain.

Though very tasty this was not an easy tasks for everyone but we are proud to say everyone was adventurous and tried different tastes, textures and smells from all the different cultures. A great way to try new things, get to know more about ourselves and our likes and dislikes, discover more about our friends and compare our similarities and differences. Most snacks got a score of 10/10 with the Chinese Chocolate Panda biscuits coming up as the favourite.

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We always end our Rainbow Club session with a pray, snack and some reflection time.

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We had some Hoptastic fun over the Easter making Easter Chick puppets, Easter cards with our finger prints, ‘Bunny Buddies and Feathered Friends’ ready to hold our bounty from the obligatory Easter egg hunt. We had great fun together, celebrated a very special time in the Christian calendar, learned to persevere when things are tricky (those bunnies and chicks were fiddly!) and even got to use a hot glue gun and wire cutters.  

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