Good morning and welcome to the October edition of Wellness Wednesday from Northern Lights Public Schools. This month’s wellness theme is Positive Mindset and our Mental Health Team (Wellness Coaches and Student Advocacy Counsellors) will be focusing on ways students can develop a positive mindset through activities and sharing resources in our schools this month.
Our Mental Health Team has curated a list of resources and activities that you can also do at home to help your children develop a positive mindset:
Positive Mindset Activities
- 7 Activities to Help Your Child Develop a Positive Attitude (Big Life Journal)
Learn how to encourage your children to accept negative emotions and process them in a healthy way, and how to encourage positive thinking and positive affirmations. - Accomplishment Box Starter Kit (understood.org)
Help your child record their accomplishments and review them at a later date. This can help them stay motivated and continue setting new goals for themselves. - Strengths Chain (understood.org)
Help your child identify their strengths and how they link together. - Stress Catcher (The National Institute of Mental Health Information Resource Center)
This stress catcher “fortune teller” offers some strategies children can practice and use to help manage stress and other difficult emotions.
Positive Mindset Resources
- Growth Mindset: Believing you can improve your abilities (Character Lab)
Learn more about how having a growth mindset helps you focus on developing your abilities rather than proving how smart or talented you are. - VIDEO: How to make stress your friend (Ted)
Kelly McGonigal discusses how to change how you think about stress and change how your body responds to it.
Learning Opportunities
- WEBINAR: Changing Mindsets: The Spark for Positive Growth (Ama La Vida Coaching)
Learn how the science of mindset shifts can teach us about happiness, purpose, and living an extraordinary life. This class takes place on Wednesday, October 20 from 12 p.m. - 1 p.m. MDT. Click on the link to register.
Community Resources and Events
- Everybody Say Love Series (Cold Lake and District FCSS)
Join the conversation about the 2SLGBTQIA+ community with discussions focused on overcoming challenges and resiliency. Weekly themed crafts with exciting topics such as inclusion and unity provide a great opportunity to meet with like-minded individuals. For ages 15-25. Weekly on Tuesdays from 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. Registration required - 780-594-4495 - Transition to Teenhood (Cold Lake Family Connections)
Friday, October 8 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Registration required - 780-594-4495
This session is best suited for preteens age 10 – 13; it will focus on dealing with the feelings and challenges that come with transitioning to teenhood. The goal of this session is to help youth cope with powerful emotions that come with physical and emotional development, and to provide them with useful relationship skills as they continue to grow and mature. - Bows Building Bridges (Lac La Biche County FCSS)
October 15 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Herb Erickson Archery Range
Registration is limited to 10 parents/teens. Call or text 780-520-7183 to register.
Check out @llbcountyFCSS on Facebook for more information. - Hope Workshop (Successful Families, Successful Kids in partnership with Lac La Biche County FCSS)
October 21 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. via Zoom
This month’s topic is how to talk to your kids about sex. Call Lac La Biche County FCSS to register. - Youth Empowerment and Engagement Tween (YEET) group - ages 9-13 (Cold Lake Family Connections)
Thursday, October 21 from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. Registration required - 780-594-4495
The Youth Empowerment and Engagement Tween group will support young tweens to build supportive connections amongst their peers and within the community. These groups provide opportunity for the development of self-confidence, self-awareness, and self-esteem, through a variety of fun and creative activities. - Junior Family Night (Successful Families, Successful Kids in partnership with Lac La Biche County FCSS)
November 8 from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
This is part of the Simple Connections, Stronger Families program that offers fun activities to help build family resiliency. Please call Lac La Biche County FCSS at 780-520-9868 to register.
Stories of Hope
Have you heard our Stories of Hope on your local Stingray station (boom 95.3, Hot 101.3, boom 103.5)? Interviews with our staff and students run every second Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. Our next interview is scheduled for October 13 and will feature H.E. Bourgoin Middle School in Bonnyville. You can also hear our Stories of Hope commercials airing daily on all three stations. This month’s ads feature Parker, a student from our Learning Together Anywhere School, and Ashley Currie, our Successful Families, Successful Kids program coordinator.
If you missed an interview, we have created a page on our website where you can listen to them: It Starts with Hope.
If you would like to be featured in our It Starts with Hope campaign, please contact communications@nlsd.ab.ca.
More Mental Health and Wellness Resources are available on our website, including
- Successful Families, Successful Kids resources for families,
- It Starts with Hope project (including our radio interviews)
- Mindful Minutes and Mindful Movements videos
- And an archive of all our Wellness Wednesday blogs.