In May, I teach my favorite topic: Emotions. The social worker in me comes sneaking out as we explore a range of emotions, all with the message that it is okay to feel whatever you are feeling. It is how you express it that is important.
One of my favorite, and the easiest things we do is singing
If You're Happy and You Know It. My class changes the words. So if we are happy and we know it, we clap our hands. If we're sad and we know it, we might hug a friend, draw a picture (in the air, pretending to draw), or get a tissue. If we're mad, we take deep breaths, fold our arms, or count to ten. We go through several emotions, like shy, excited, scared, and jealous. I try to help the students pick productive way to "really [want to] show it."
When we were talking about scared feelings, we read
Glad Monster, Sad Monster by Ed Emberly and Anna Miranda and made monster masks out of cut up cereal boxes. (I have discovered that cereal boxes are the best cardboard for art projects. They are sturdy, but thin enough to easily cut. The being free part helps, too.)
On angry day, we wrapped our shoes in plastic bags and dipped them in paint. We stomped our paint-dipped feet on paper and pretended to be throwing a temper tantrum. The kids talked about what they do when they throw a tantrum and then laughed as they reenacted it, identifying better ways to express themselves.
On sad day, we decorated shoe boxes with pictures of things and stickers that made us feel happy. After cutting a hole in the top, we turned the shoe box into a tissue box holder. As we made these, the kids talked about things that made them sad and more often than not, they named the same things and shared advice on how to feel better. I love my class. I love the conversations that kids have when they forget you are listening.
We did yoga every day as we read
My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss. I found this idea on YouTube and simply cannot say enough about how this activity benefited my classroom. We enjoyed the zen time every day, usually at the end of the day. During the day, if a student needed a second to get under control, I encouraged him or her to
"take a bumble bee breath". If someone was angry, I asked them to be try
"be a wolf for a second." When we would get super excited about things in the class, I encouraged them to
"circus seal it". I ended up giving each of my students a copy of the book as an end-of-the-year gift and one mom later told me that her son read the book
to her, showing her the yoga poses. LOVE IT.
One surprise this month came on grumpy day. I planned to take toilet paper tubes, get them wet, and mold them into grumpy faces. My kids decided to make art like tangrams with the toilet paper tubes that opened up when they got wet and to keep some dry and make "control panels" to wear on their wrists. One student led the whole class in making the tangram art and then they all talked about how "proud" they were of it. WIN!
The control panels were super cool, too, because my students discussed how thye were in control of their emotions and their actions!
May was such a winning month that I really have to step my game up for June!
