It's amazing what you stumble across late at night, sitting on the lounge in you PJ's with your favourite cup of tea. Recently, I found the PERFECT accompaniment for my Social-Emotional Program which I run with my kiddos at Tightrope Learning.
Stay Classy Classrooms have come up with this precious emotion resource. From seeing this I had the idea to link it in with my unit.
The children first spoke together about how they were feeling today. They quickly came to realise, that despite being in the same room and doing the exact same thing, not everyone feels the same emotion at the same time. We shared the importance of recognising and understanding how others are feeling. The children then chose a card which represented how they were feeling and explain why. They then took turns at placing a stone on "They are feeling...." then did the same on "I am feeling..."
It was really powerful when I allowed the children the chance to explain WHY they were feeling this way. As parents, we sometimes don't spend enough time listening...and that's not our fault. We just have to expect them to deal with their emotions and move on with the day. Without this step though, we are not teaching children to NAME their emotion. If they can't name it, they don't recognise what it FEELS like, and so are not aware of how to COPE with it either.
I am really proud of including this as part of my School Readiness Program. So many little ones come to school unable to self-regulate their emotions. With early recognition, we can provide our kids with the necessary skills of becoming more in tune with their emotions and deal with them appropriately.
