Emotional Needs of Boys

Three weeks ago today, I was asked to speak at my school’s Benefactor Dinner. They asked that I speak about how my program addresses the emotional needs of boys. I was about one second away from declining due to my fear of speaking in front of more than 1 person . . . an introvert’s nightmare. Give me 100 children, I’ll sing and dance for you, but a room full of adults, the most influential adults in our school community? Ya I’d turn that down, sweat through 15 shirts, and nearly have a panic attack . . . instead I said yes . . . sweat through 2 shirts, nearly had a panic attack, and settled for a glass of wine to cool my nerves instead.

Bag of Tricks

As we work to explore our different feelings in 2nd grade, we must also know what to do with our feelings, especially the ones that make us feel not-so-good.

Let the Music Move You

Music Therapy is one branch of counseling used all around the world. In fact, there is an entire website dedicated to music therapy. The website states:

Music therapy interventions can be designed to:

• Promote Wellness
• Manage Stress
• Alleviate Pain
• Express Feelings
• Enhance Memory
• Improve Communication
• Promote Physical Rehabilitation

My World of Colorful Feelings

More change happened for me yesterday . . . not a major change, unless you considering buying a new book major change.

I bought, Puzzle Pieces: Classroom Guidance Collection, a collection of character education lessons for K-5. I was looking to add some extra lessons into my 2nd grade repertoire before I began with my Connecting With Others lessons (my modified lessons from this book can be found here, here, here, and here). I figured before we start focusing on personal space, empathy, and caring, we should probably begin talking about different feelings and things that make us feel different ways. Puzzle Pieces has a great (well the verdict is still out . . . I’ve only done one lesson, which was great) unit on feelings.

“I Messages” and Active Listening Response

I started the 4th grade year by working on empathy and identifying the feeling of others. It is in this lesson that I also begin introducing more intense feelings and when or why they happen.

I began the lesson with my Elf Cards and did a similar activity with the past 4th grade last year. I held up a more difficult Elf Feeling Card and had the boys walk around the room and talk to a partner about this feeling. They recognized not only a time that they had felt this, but a time when they have witnessed a friend, brother, sister, or adult feel this way.

Door Openers and Road Blocks

I Hear You

ADAPTED FROM: CONNECTING WITH OTHERS

Topics Covered: Interpersonal Effectiveness, Communication Skills, and Fairness

Feelings Book

I got this idea from a worksheet I saw and pinned from Pinterest. The book was originally meant to be a writing prompt book published by Scholastic. I figured now that the 2nd graders could write without being too overly concerned with spelling things correctly (although I can’t blame them), I would give this book a chance.

I mean I’m pretty sure Scholastic meant to publish this in their nonexistent school counselor magazine, not their teacher’s so I took the liberty of using it in my guidance lesson.

How Does Your Jellybean Feel Today?

Mine feels like it should be Friday . . . or summertime . . . or Friday during the summertime. Wishful thinking, right?

Well, sadly enough the Kinders saw Emotional Eugene for the last time last week. Surprisingly enough, they were SUPER excited to know who they were going to meet this week. I’m going to hold out on you . . . you will also find out in due time!

Boundin

I can only take credit for 3/8ths of this idea. The other 5/8ths belong to Marissa at Elementary School Counseling.

I used this lesson for Kinders, 1st, and 2nd graders (pretty versatile). The Kinders got the second part during their small group Social Skills lessons, while 1st and 2nd graders got it during their bi-monthly guidance lesson.

Blah Beaters

In Kindergarten, we have been doing a lot of talking about feelings. Feelings that make us feel good and some that make us feel, well, bad. This lesson is dedicated to a feeling us, adults, probably identify with often. Let’s play a game . . .

Oh, on that note, have I ever talked to you about my teaching philosophy? My motto/teaching philosophy came about one day when one of my Kindergarten teachers said to me, as I was picking up 5 incredibly hyped up Kindergarteners, “Whatever you do in there must be pretty fun.” And my exact response/motto/teaching philosophy was, “Any thing called a game is fun!” And off we went, momma duck and her 5 hyped up ducklings. So, am I right or am I right? Anyways back to the game I want to play with you. It’s called, “Guess what feeling I’m talking about.”

This feeling is not a happy feeling. But it’s not a sad feeling either. This feeling might make you want to watch a funny movie or just relax in bed. Any guesses?

It’s called “The Blahs.” Now, do you know what I’m talking about?

Well, anyways Kindergarteners definitely don’t have a CLUE. So, I ended up talking about many times that I’ve felt the blahs. I pretty much described it like those days that you wake up and you just don’t feel like yourself, but you don’t really know what’s wrong. For Kindergarteners, this is probably the morning that they tell their parents that they don’t want to go to school when they are normally bounding around at 6am.

I had the boys try to identify times that they may have felt this way. I explained that normally we do not like feeling “the blahs.” So . . . what do we have to do? We have to find ways to beat the blahs, appropriately named “Blah Beaters.”

Emotional Eugene beats the blahs by watching a funny movie that makes him laugh. We all pulled out our Thinking Mes and began brainstorming things we would like to do to beat the blahs.

I made a big list on the board.

• Playing outside
• Eating a cookie
• Talking to my mom
• Playing video games
• Watching T.V.
• Fishing
• Decorating the Christmas Tree
• Playing in my room
• Petting my dogs

The activity asked them to decide on the best “Blah Beater” for them and draw it on the paper. Simple, yes, that simple.

Oh, by the way, this is just another lesson adapted from the Jellybean Jamboree. How many copies of this book do you think I’ve sold? One of these days you will see a commercial of me with a Jellybean on a stick, smiling, and teaching Kindergarteners.