Pre-K & K Week 8:
Emotional Regulation Part One
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With the Lesson Plan and Parent Guide PDFs
Lesson Key Concepts:
- Learning to Identify Emotions
- How our emotions affect our overall well being and happiness
- Skills to help regulate our emotions
Overview:
In this lesson, we will focus on helping students visually understand emotions and how they affect their state of being. We will start with a fun video, which many will have seen. After introducing the importance of emotions and knowing how to describe how you are feeling, additional activities and stories to help students gain an awareness of their emotions and the choices they can make when they feel certain emotions.
Emotional Regulation Lesson Elements
- Using Video: Identifying emotions (inside out)
- Visual Metaphor Walkthrough: Balloons
- Activity “My Balloon”
- Story Example: “The Monster Parade” Book – Video.
- Resilience Booster: Art Activity – Monster Feelings – Create Monsters that show different feelings.
- Story Example: “The Color Monster” Book – Video
- Resilience Booster: Art Activity – Make a monster with colored pom poms or use crayons or markers to color the emotions
Vocabulary
- Emotions / Feelings
- Overinflated
- Underinflated
- Strategies
Learner Objectives
- I can identify different emotions.
- I can identify emotions and situations that make me feel overinflated emotions like anger and frustration.
- I can identify emotions and situations that make me feel underinflated emotions like sadness, fear, and embarrassment.
- I can identify strategies that help me feel better when feeling unhappy emotions.
Emotional Regulation –
Metaphor Walkthrough and Processing Guide
Using Video – Framing the Lesson:
We will begin this lesson by sharing a video that allows students to identify different emotions. The video clip is on Youtube and will use the popular Pixar movie, Inside Out, to give students a chance to identify emotions.
Say: “To start our lesson we are going to watch a video clip from one of my favorite Pixar movies! It is all about feelings and emotions that we all have. We are going to play a game to see if you can guess the feelings. As you watch look for clues that help you guess what the person is feeling”
The clip will begin with the question “how is she feeling,” and will show different examples that demonstrate the following emotions:
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Disgusted
- Scared
As you use the video, pause before the video reveals the answer to that question and process the following with your students:
- What do you think she was feeling? (emotion)
- How do you know she was feeling that?
- What were some of the clues that helped you guess the feeling?
After the video say:
“Today, we are learning how to identify what we are feeling so that it can help us make better choices. Explain that if we can learn to say what we are feeling at any moment, it can help us know what choices to make.”
Discussion of the Visual Metaphor
Materials Needed: a couple of medium to large party balloons.
Preparation: It can be helpful to draw a face on your balloon(s) before the lesson. (This helps us to reinforce the metaphor of the balloon representing us.) To do this, blow up your balloon but do not tie it off. While pinching off the opening to the balloon to keep the air in, use a permanent marker (ie. Sharpie) to draw a simple face on your balloon. Then let the air out and have the inflated balloon ready for your lesson. If you have a few balloons, it would be good to draw a couple of faces similar to those three in the visual metaphor.
Flag #1:
To illustrate the visual metaphor it will be helpful to have a few medium to large party balloons to use as an additional object lesson to help illustrate the principle in the metaphor. Show the presentation slide with the single blue balloon. (Flag #1)
Pull out a balloon that is big enough for you to inflate to a considerable size. (It’s not recommended to use a balloon that is intended as a water balloon or a small balloon.) Say to your students:
“I love balloons! We are going to talk about how we can be like balloons. I’m going to fill up this balloon and you raise your hand when you think it is filled up to the right amount of air. The right amount means, it’s not too full but it’s not too empty. You want it to be just right. You want it to look like the balloon in the picture.”
Fill up the balloon until your students raise their hands to let you know that it is full. Then ask the following questions:
- How do you know a balloon isn’t full enough? What does it look like?
- How do you know a balloon is overinflated or too full? What does it look like?
If the balloon is filled up to where you think it is the right amount, then tie it off.
Hold up the balloon with the face showing to your students and say:
“This balloon represents every one of us when we are feeling good. What are some of the emotions or feelings that you think this balloon might have when it’s like this?” (allow students to share some feelings/emotions. They should include things like happiness, calm, excite, etc)
Flag #2:
Show the slide with flag #2 of the overinflated balloon. Pull out another balloon with a face drawn on it, similar to the red balloon in the visual metaphor. You could also use the balloon you had previously used (if you found a way to clamp it shut without tying it off).
Say: “Sometimes things happen in our life that cause this to happen.”
Start to blow the balloon up and keep going so that it is getting really full and close to popping. Some of your students will probably become nervous that it may pop. Don’t blow it up enough that it pops, but make sure you put in enough air to look overinflated.
Say: “This balloon represents how things that happen during our day can make us feel. It’s almost like this balloon is going to burst. Do you ever feel like that? What kind of feelings or emotions do you think this balloon represents?”
Allow your students time to process this with you and share what they see in your balloon. You will likely hear them say things like anger, frustration, mad, etc. After you have confirmed or brought up those answers, ask your students:
“What are some things that make us mad, angry, frustrated, etc?”
Let some air out of your balloon so that it is normally inflated or even a little underinflated, and with each of their answers to your question, blow into the balloon to add more air. Keep repeating until it is overinflated again. This will help you reinforce the understanding that there are things that happen to us that create those emotions and make us feel like an overinflated balloon.
Flag #3:
Show the slide with Flag #3 and the balloon that is underinflated.
Say: “Sometimes things happen in our day that cause this to happen.”
Pull out another balloon that has a sad face drawn on it, like the green balloon in the visual metaphor with the flag #3. (ProTip: if you inflate your balloon extra full beforehand and let it stay full for a few minutes so that it gets stretched out, it will work better for this illustration of our object lesson.) Blow you balloon up so that it is inflated to a regular amount or maybe even a little over inflated. Then let some of the air out of the balloon until it is small and under inflated. (If you are still just using a single balloon then deflate your balloon so that it is under inflated.) For visual effect, you should underinflate it so that it just doesn’t look like it is anywhere close to its capacity. It may even hang down from the lack of air, or start to wrinkle from being stretched out.
Say: “This balloon now represents how we sometimes feel because of things that happen to us during the day. What emotions or feelings do you think this balloon represents?”
Allow your students time to process this with you and share what they see in your balloon. You will likely hear them say things like sad, lonely, scared, etc.
Say: “What are some things that make us feel that way?”
Refill the balloon to normal capacity, and as they give you answers to that question, slowly let the air out with each answer. Keep repeating until it is underinflated again. This will help you reinforce the understanding that there are things that happen to us that create those emotions and make us feel like an underinflated balloon.
Flag #4:
Show the slide with Flag #4 and all three balloons together.
Say: “Sometimes during our day, there are things that overinflate our balloon and cause us to be angry or upset, and things that let too much air out of our balloon and cause us to be underinflated or sad. The that happens, there are things we can do to add air or let the air out to get us back to where we want to be, like the middle balloon.”
Flag #5:
Show the slide with Flag #5
Say: “Let’s talk about some things we can do to add air to our balloon. When you are feeling down or sad, what are some things you can do to help you feel better and put a smile on your face again? ”
Allow your students to respond and process this with them. This is a good opportunity to share some things that you like to do when you are feeling sad, lonely, etc. and how they help you to feel better. (It’s always good to suggest examples of helping someone or looking for ways to be helpful to those around you. Few things will lift our spirits and put more air in our balloons like turning outward and helping others! This is also a good tie-back to “the Helpful Track” we discussed in weeks 2-3.)
Flag #6:
Show the slide with Flag #6
Say: “Let’s talk about some things we can do to let air out of our balloon. When you are feeling frustrated, angry, or upset, what are some things you can do to help you feel better, calm down, and put a smile on your face again? ”
Allow your students to respond and process this with them. This is a good opportunity to share some things that you like to do when you are feeling frustrated or angry and how they help you to calm down and feel better. (It can be good to suggest things that help you recognize the extra energy that is building up inside and look for ways to let it out and use it for something that could help you, like running and moving your body during recess or working hard to help clean up after a class activity. Looking for productive and helpful things to do that help let out some of that air from our balloon can be another connection to “the Helpful Track” we discussed in weeks 2-3.)
Facilitating the Activity: “My Balloon”
Objective:
To help students recognize and understand their own feelings as well as the feelings of others, using facial expressions and non-verbal cues
Materials:
- Balloon faces showing different emotions (printable lesson resources)
- Colored Balloons – 1 for each student (optional)
- Permanent Marker (Sharpie)
- Adhesive tape or strings to attach or hang balloons
Preparation:
- Print out the balloon faces from the lesson resources and cut them out. Make sure to have enough so that each student will have one to show the class.
- (optional) Before the class, inflate and tie off enough balloons so each child can have one. Draw faces on the balloons to match the facial emotions on the printable balloon
Instructions:
Introduce the activity by spreading the printed balloon faces out on a table. If you choose to use real balloons with faces you have drawn on them, keep them in a large plastic garbage sack or carefully lay them out on a table to avoid them accidentally getting popped.
Say: “We are going to play a game to see how well we can recognize different feelings in other people. Each of you will have an opportunity to share a balloon with a face on it, and the rest of the class will try and guess the feeling or emotion that balloon face is showing. Before you show us the balloon we want you to try and make that same feeling show on your face first and we will try and guess the feeling.”
Have students come up one at a time and select a balloon picture. Do not have them show the picture to the class at first. Have them try and make the same expression with their own face and see if the class can guess the emotion. Then have them reveal the balloon face and have the class guess again.
Processing Questions:
- Did any of you have a favorite balloon face that you guessed?
- Which balloon faces were the easiest to guess?
- How did you feel when you were the one making a face?
- How did you feel when you were guessing what the feeling was?
- Why is it important to be able to guess how someone might be feeling?
- What can we do to practice and get better at recognizing other people’s feelings?
Story Example: “The Monster Parade”
Amazon Summary:
Watch as the anger monster passes and the sadness monster disappears–it’s all part of the parade of feelings we experience every day. Instead of holding on to their emotions, kids can acknowledge them and let them go on their way.
Frame/Introduction:
Say: “This story is a favorite book that talks about feelings we experience every day. As we read it, look for some of the feeling monsters and pay attention to what happens to them.”
Processing Questions:
- What were some of the feelings that the monsters in the book represented?
- One of them was the angry monster. What did it look like? What do you think about the angry monster?
- What did the book say to do with the angry monster? Is it ok to be angry sometimes?
- What happened to the angry monster?
- Did it stay forever, or did it eventually leave?
- Did the kids in the book leave with it or let it go? (The book said to feel your feet on the floor and let it pass.)
- What do some of those feelings talked about in the book look like on our faces?
- Can you sometimes recognize the way someone might be feeling by the look on their face?
Resilience Booster – Art Activity: “Monster Feelings”
Introduction:
This is a fun art activity that can help students to identify feelings and facial expressions by using different monster parts to build their own monster that is experiencing a feeling.
Materials:
- Monster parts (printable lesson resources)
- A piece of heavy paper or card stock for each student
- Paste or glue sticks
- Crayons or Markers (optional)
- Googly eyes stickers (optional)
- Felt board and cut out felt monster parts (optional)
Preparation:
Have enough monster parts printed, cut out and organized into bags or containers of similar parts (i.e arms, legs, eyes, mouth, nose etc) for your students to each pick from and use to build their own monsters. Prepare a piece of colored construction paper or cardstock and some paste or gluesticks to share, so each student will have the resources to glue their monster parts on their paper. Make sure to have some crayons, pencils, markers or paint available for coloring the monster after it has been glued together.
Instructions:
Say: “Each of you is going to make your own monster with feelings. First, you will come pick a piece of paper to glue your monster onto.” Give them a minute to all get their paper.
Say: “OK, next you will pick a monster body and then pick some parts for your monster. You can decide what feeling your monster is going to have, and you will try and build your monster by gluing body parts (like arms, legs, eyes, and mouth) onto your paper in a way that will show the feelings that your monster has. When you are done gluing your monster together on your paper, you can give your monster a name and add anything that you might want to draw on your monster or add some color to help us recognize how your monster is feeling. Any questions? Let’s go!”
Have your students spend time creating their monsters with all of the provided resources. Take time to talk with them about their monsters and process some of the feelings they are trying to show on the monster’s face. You might want to talk about some of the different ways to use eyes, eyebrows, and mouth shapes and how they can show different emotions. After they have completed the work, have each student share their monsters with the class, tell everyone the name of their monster, and ask the class to guess the feeling it is having based on the facial expressions the monster has.
Processing Questions:
- What were some of your favorite monster faces?
- Which faces were the easiest to guess?
- How do eyes help show emotions?
- How did the monster’s mouth help show emotions?
- How do you sometimes show different feelings you are having with your face?
- What are some things you look at in other people’s faces to guess how they are feeling?
Put their monsters up on the WhyTry Time wall to refer to them during the week and keep the discussion going.
Story Example: “The Color Monster”
Amazon Summary:
One day, Color Monster wakes up feeling very confused. His emotions are all over the place; he feels angry, happy, calm, sad, and scared all at once! To help him, a little girl shows him what each feeling means through color. As this adorable monster learns to sort and define his mixed up emotions, he gains self-awareness and peace as a result. Everyone will enjoy sharing this concept book that taps into both socio-emotional growth and color concepts in a simple, friendly way.
Frame/Introduction:
Say: “This is a book about our emotions and how they make it hard for us when they are jumbled up. As we read this story, pay attention to the different emotions it talks about and the colors that represent those emotions.”
Processing Questions:
- What were some of the emotions and feelings they talked about in the book?
- What was the problem with the monster at the beginning of the book?
- What did they do to help the monster see the different emotions it was having?
- When we can see our different emotions, it can help us understand them better. Is it okay to feel different emotions?
- What can we do if we have an emotion that we don’t like?
Resilience Booster – Art Activity: “My Color Monster”
Objective:
This is a fun art activity that can help us to identify emotions by naming them and assigning a color to them as we saw in the storybook example “The Color Monster”
Materials:
- Monster Pictures (printable lesson resources)
- Colored pom poms and glue (optional)
- Googly eyes stickers (optional)
- Crayons, colored pencils, or markers
Preparation:
Have enough printed monsters for students to each pick one to use for their own monster. If you are using the pom poms and googly eyes, organize them into baggies or jars of the same color and have some glue sticks or paste for students to use to glue their pom poms to their monster. Make sure to have some crayons, pencils or markers available for coloring the monster and drawing the face.
Instructions:
Say: “Each of you is going to make your own monster that is experiencing an emotion. First you will come pick a paper with a monster shape. Next, you will decide what emotion your monster is going to have, and you will give your monster a name and you will draw its face to match that emotion. Last, you will pick a color to represent that emotion, and you will color your monster. When you are finished we will have you share your monsters with the class and tell us about the emotion your monster is having.”
Have your students spend time creating their color monster with crayons, markers, or colored pencils. If you are using the pom poms, help them to carefully glue the pom poms to their monsters. After they have completed the work, have each student share their monsters and tell the class about their name, color, and the emotion their monster is having.
Processing Questions:
- What were the colors that some of you picked for your monster’s emotions?
- Why did you pick that color?
- How are colors like emotions?
- What are some of your favorite emotions?
- Are there any emotions that you don’t like or have a hard time with?
- Why does it help to name your monster? Why is it helpful to name your emotions?
Put their monsters up on the WhyTry wall to refer to them during the week and keep the discussion going.