Social & Emotional Learning:
Fun Friends Program
Session 2 : Feelings
Today we continued to explore the Fun Friends' Program. We had circle time where the students talked about feelings and more importantly what we do as a result of those feelings. It was interesting to listen to some of the responses I got from them. I was curious what kinds of strategies they used to help themselves cope when they were feeling angry and sad. Most of them responded that when they feel angry and upset they try to find quiet spaces at home and they read a book. It wasn't surprising that most of my students who have problems dealing with their emotions had trouble coming up with responses. I noticed none of them mentioned deep breaths. I realize I haven't spent enough time teaching them how to manage their own feelings as much as I have tried to teach them skills to solve problems with others. I'm going to use this insight to help me teach the students coping skills such as taking deep breaths or counting to ten, and I know I have to model this for them too. In order for my students to become resilient learners I have to be their ultimate model.
Feelings Game: We created a spinner with four different types of feelings and the children got into groups. Each child spun the spinner and acted out what feeling it landed on. Together the group guessed and talked about ways in which they could help that person if their feeling needed to be "lifted"
Overall, the students are learning how to express themselves and talk about how they are feeling. They are doing very well with this and we are honoring how to understand and read others' feelings.
