We are learning about our brains.

We learned about three parts of the brain.  The amygdala reacts to fear, danger and threat, and regulates our emotional state by acting as the brain’s “guard dog,” protecting us from threats.  But when a child is in a negative emotional state (stressed, fearful,) the amygdala prevents input from being passed along, essentially blocking higher level thinking and learning.

The hippocampus is our “memory keeper,” and also helps to manage our response to fear and stress.

The prefrontal cortex is the thinking, learning and reasoning center of the brain- our “wise old owl.”  This part of the brain controls our decision making, focuses our attention and allows us to learn to read, write, compute, analyze, predict, comprehend and interpret.

Learning how these parts of the brain help children to understand how their brains respond to stress and prepares them for creating a calm mindset set for thoughtful decision making, led by the prefrontal cortex.

We learned that we can use our hand to help us learn about the parts of the brain.

Here is a video we watched together in class.  We talked about how breathing can help us to be in control of our emotions.

Here is a fun song about the brain:

This is an example of the lesson I taught to introduce the brain and its parts: