The Shoreham-Wading River School District welcomed a new Wellness Club to Miller Avenue School. There were many students interested in joining the club, so the school divided the participants into two groups (blue and gold). Each group will attend six sessions. This week, students in the gold group met with speech teacher Amy Schuchman and school psychologist Mary Anne Benz, the club’s advisers.

“We had a wonderful first session,” Mrs. Benz said. “It was so great to see all of the kids bright and early, and their enthusiasm was palpable. We are so thrilled to get to know them!”

The advisers started the session by sharing a bit about themselves and their families. They also discussed some of the things they personally enjoy doing outside of school to help themselves feel calm and reduce stress. The students then shared about their own families and things they love to do to make themselves feel happy and connected. They explored the concept of wellness and what it means, and the students all supplied some amazingly spot-on answers during the discussion!

Afterwards the students made their project for the day – calming bottles. They loved pouring the glitter glue into their bottles and then shaking them up after they added some water, and then they happily picked out some other fun additions such as beads, glitter, buttons and googly eyes. They then hot glued the caps onto the bottles and added some decorative washi tape for extra bling. When this “craftivity” was complete, they talked about how they can use their calming bottles at home as a tool for wellness. Whenever they are feeling frustrated, upset or angry, they can shake them up and enjoy the scenery inside to help themselves feel grounded and calm again.