Thinking Thursdays
Building on last week's post about dealing with dysregulated children, today we want to share curriculum aligned ideas that can help students build children’s oral language and build positive neuro pathways in communicating and expressing their emotions. Building emotional intelligence, communicating feelings, building capacity to self-regulate and manage emotions as well as identifying and appreciating the feelings of others forms part of Learning Outcome 3 in The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. Although incidental teaching moments, such as the de-escalation process in last week’s post, are critical teaching moments to support emotional intelligence,it is important to match these with explicit teaching lessons when children are calm.
So today we post some possible lesson ideas and resources to accompany the fantastic text : The Colour Monster by Anna Llenas.(link)
The colour monster is a fantastic text that helps promote the discussion of emotions. For those who aren’t awake,there are two versions of this text, one being more suitable for children 3-5. Following reading this text, you could:
Have children colour a picture representing how they feel (link)
Using a colour monster spinner or dice, you can play a role play drama game where students have to show the emotion that is landed on (link)
Colour and match the colour monster to the correct emotions jar
When discussing emotions, or supporting a dysregulated child, use a colour monster feelings chart to help build children’s oral language. There a pocket sized chart you can keep on you, or in your langyard to use when outside (link)
Create feeling jars, students can choose a pompom that reflect their mood and place in the jar. Then, students can do a paper follow up activity (link)