This week, I am talking about feelings with kindergarten and first grade classes. One of the most important parts of being a kind member of a community is recognizing how other people are feeling and why. As part of our lesson, we spent time discussing different feeling words. We then looked at and practiced feeling faces. Finally, everyone chose a feeling to write about and illustrate.
This year, I am incorporating a program called the Zones of Regulation into our lessons on feelings and conflict resolution in first grade classes. Understanding the feelings that fit into certain zones helps us learn how to respond when we are feeling a certain way. You can see the different zones in the chart attached to this post. We will use this work on feelings when we discuss problem solving over the next several weeks.
Building a feeling word vocabulary is important for everyone, and you can help at home. Try and find opportunities to introduce feeling words into the time you spend with your children. When they are feeling good, help them instead recognize if they are excited, surprised, confident, silly, comfortable, or proud, and what has caused them to feel that way. When they are upset, help them figure out if they are angry, sad, bored, jealous, grumpy, shy, uncomfortable, frustrated, confused, scared, embarrassed, guilty, disappointed, or lonely. Understanding these more complex feelings is an important step to figuring out the cause of the feeling, and if it is something you don’t like, making it better.
Thank you for your support with this important lesson.
Sincerely,
David Starr
School Counselor, Armstrong Elementary School
PH: 508-836-7760 Email: [email protected]