Social Emotional Activities

Emotional Health

My theory is that teachers are the role models for emotional health and if we present ourselves as emotional beings and explain to them healthy ways to express our emotions that will in turn create a safe space for the students to connect with one another and have the ability to feel freely. To me emotional health is the first thing I would want to instill in my students because once we are all able to understand our emotions and care for the emotions of other we will then be able to begin the learning process.

Morning Journal

The students would first start off by telling me how they are feeling and that may be two or three words or the student can tell me a whole story of what is going on in their world, so I can better understand how they are feeling. Then the journal would be used for creative writing prompts or warm-up questions. If my school has laptops or iPads I would create a submission box for the students, so that I can see what the students are saying instantly and address their needs earlier in the day.

Feelings Board

I love the different feelings boards that have physical human faces or animals which then gives the students visuals in order to identify what they are feeling and then we can discuss the name of that emotion. If a student is feeling anxious, but does not know what that emotion is yet they can use this board to identify how it feels first and then begin to understand what it is like to be anxious and how their heart and body feel in that emotion.

Leader in Me

This is a program that is used at Valley Ranch Elementary. It is based off of the teachings from "The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey. The seven habits he describes in his book are reimagined into children friendly language that they can relate to in their own lives. The students learn about the 7 habits throughout each school year and then the process starts over the next year and they get deeper into each habit as they mature. This program is a great tool to begin talking about social and emotional health in a way that children can have fund and understand healthy habits. This program is not only used in a 15-30 minute lesson every morning, but it is also used in the classroom as a classroom management tool.