A guide for using our resources

Children will explore and analyze a range of emotions they might feel at school.

Simple, spectacular ideas to boost your lessons.

• Use the “My Feelings” sheet to incorporate poetry into your writing center! Children personalize the poem by writing a word and drawing a face that tells how they feel.
• You can let kids fi ll out multiple sheets throughout the day or week and keep them in a folder. It’s a great way to teach that feelings come and go—and all of them are OK!

• Read Jo Witek’s In My Heart: A Book of Feelings. It uses wonderful imagery and sensory language to describe a variety of feelings.
• The book is sure to spark rich discussions. Ask this question after each page: “How does your heart feel when it is (sad, happy, proud, etc.)?”

Skill: social and emotional learning, fine-motor skills

Materials: clear plastic bottles with tops, water, glitter, food coloring, small decorative items (e.g., plastic beads), clear dish soap, superglue, masking tape

• Premake a calm-down bottle. (See instructions below.) Explain that when we get upset, our feelings can get big. We don’t need them to disappear, but we want them to settle down. A calm-down bottle can help!
• Demonstrate using it. Shake the bottle and watch the items settle as you take deep breaths.
• Help children make their own. Fill bottles of the way with warm water. Add glitter and food coloring.
• Have kids put in decorative items. Fill the rest with dish soap so there’s no air at the top. Superglue the top on, and secure it with tape.