On Friday we had our first PAThS session.   PAThS is short for Promoting Alternative Thinking Skills and is a specially designed program which increases children’s awareness of emotions and managing our feelings.   The program involves scripted lessons, puppets, social story books involving the main characters, and lots of resources for follow up art and craft activities.  The materials for the program will be on show at Parents Evening but if you would like to have a look at them this week, just ask.

We began by looking at the rules for PAThS circle time.  We read a sad story about a nursery with no rules- it sounded pretty ghastly and we all agreed that Milngavie ELCC is much better, because we all know how to behave and are kind to each other.   We then talked about the rules we need to remember when sitting in our PAThS circle- legs in a basket, hands to ourselves, good listening, gentle touches, hands up when you want to say something and being quiet until it is your turn to talk. Then we met Twiggle the turtle, our main PAThS  puppet character, who had brought some of his friends along to meet us. His friends were hiding in a bag and we had to guess the kind of animal they were from clues . Twiggle is going to help us learn to identify our emotions and find ways to build resilience and good self esteem.  Next week we are going to be learning about the importance of compliments and will be thinking of lots of nice things to say to our friends.

Here are our PAThS characters: