Third Grade: Conflicting Feelings

For our first lesson in our new rotation, we discussed Conflicting Feelings. We started off our lesson with a Brain Builder called Switch It Up, where pairs were combined into groups of fours, and partner A's and partner B's took turns asking each other how they felt for each scenario. Any time both A's or both B's had the same answer, the pair would switch places, moving them to a new partner. This Brain Builder emphasized the idea that people don't always have the same feelings about something.

We also talked about how people can have more than one feeling about something at the same time.  We talked about a girl named Eva, who was feeling both curious and nervous about Oobleck, a new substance her teacher had brought in for a lesson about liquids and solids.  The teacher gave students the opportunity to touch the Oobleck if they would like, and Eva wasn't sure if she wanted to. Students identified feeling clues for both curious and nervous, and also shared why she might be feeling each of those feelings. Students then had to think about each feeling by itself and decide whether they would touch the Oobleck if they had that feeling. Many students said they would touch the Oobleck if they felt curious, but they wouldn't if they felt nervous. We talked about what it means to have conflicting feelings, and why this was making it hard for Eva to decide what to do.

We brainstormed ways Eva could help herself decide: watching to see what others do, telling the teacher how she was feeling, or telling a friend. Eva ultimately decided to tell the teacher how she is feeling, and the teacher says it is okay if she doesn't want to touch it. Eva doesn't end up touching the Oobleck, and some others students make the same decision.

First Grade: Looking for More Clues

For our third rotation this year, we are continuing our unit on Empathy.  We started the lesson by reviewing our four skills for learning: focus, listen, use self-talk, and be assertive. We used these skills to help us be successful in our Brain Builder, "Mrs. Brumitt Says."

We listened to "The Feelings Song," and students learned the corresponding dance moves for the chorus.

• Everyone has feelings - hug torso
• We show them on our faces - point to cheeks
• We feel them in our bodies - hands on stomach
• We tell them with our voices - cup mouth

Snail came to visit and told the students about his balloon that had popped. Students had to use the feelings clues we already knew (face and body) to determine how Snail was feeling. We also talked about how the words people say and how they say them (voice) can also be clues.

We spent the rest of the lesson talking about two photos. The first one showed a student named Julien who was curious about what was inside of a brown paper bag that was being used for a science activity. We used our feelings clues to determine his feeling: curious. We talked about what clues showed that he was curious, and then a third clue was introduced: the situation. The situation, or what is happening, can help us to identify how someone is feeling. 

We finished the lesson by looking at another student named Rita, who was trying to learn how to double dutch jump rope, but couldn't seem to get it. Students used feeling clues to decide how she was feeling (frustrated), and then pointed out the clues that showed that feeling. Students also identified the situation that was causing this feeling.

Kids' College: Career Interest Inventory

For our second lesson in Kids' College, students logged into Missouri Connections to take a career interest inventory exam. Students set up their passwords as 4thGrade when they logged in. They spent the rest of the lesson taken an 80 question career interest inventory that determined which of the 16 career clusters were the best match for their interests.

They used their results to complete this worksheet, where they had to find three different occupations for each of their top three career clusters and determine which career cluster might be the best for them.

Kids' College: Occupation Research

For our final lesson in Kids' College, students logged on to Missouri Connections to research an occupation they were interested in. All students picked an occupation to research, and used Missouri Connections to answer the questions on this worksheet.

We concluded our lesson by sharing which occupations students had chosen and why.

Second Grade: Compassion

For our last January lesson, we finished our unit on empathy by discussing the final step: compassion. We reviewed the previous lesson about Tiana and Brandon and talked about what Tiana had done to make Brandon feel better about the science assignment. We also talked about how our skills for learning help us to have empathy. We must focus and listen in order to know how someone is feeling. Self-talk allows us to think about ways to help, and when we do something to help we are being assertive. We played a brain builder called Mum's the Word where students had to use their skills for learning to count around the room, replacing any numbers that contain four with "sun" and any number that contain six with "sun."

For the rest of the lesson, we talked about a student named Ayako, who was the helper of the day. The teacher had asked Ayako to pass out supplies to students for an assignment, and while Ayako was walking with the supplies, she tripped on her shoe string, spilling the supplies. We talked about how Ayako felt (sad, embarrased), and what clues showed us that feeling. We also talked about whether we had ever spilled something and felt embarrassed. Because we have experienced something similar, we are able to have empathy  for Ayako!

Kareem, another student in the class, also saw Ayako slip and fall. He used his feeling clues to notice how she was feeling, and he wanted to say or do something to help. Students shared with their partners their ideas for how he could help: ask if she is okay, offer to help, say something kind. Kareem was able to help Ayako feel better because he had empathy for her! Because Kareem had care and concern for Ayako, he asked if she was okay and helped her clean up. We talked about how compassion is empathy in action -- meaning, what you do because of your empathy. We ended the lesson by sharing examples of times we had shown  compassion.

Kindergarten: Same and Different Feelings

For our last lesson in our January rotation, we learned that students can have the same or different feelings about something. We started out the lesson by talking about what same and different mean, and then playing a game of Simon Says where students had to do the same or different action from what I was doing. Students used their skills for learning to be successful in the game, and the brain builder provided them with an opportunity to start thinking about what same and different look like.

We had a visit from Puppy and Snail, who were talking about how they liked to ride the merry-go-round. Puppy likes to ride fast on the merry-go-round. Snail prefers to ride slowly. They have different feelings about the same thing! We spent the rest of our lesson talking about two boys who were playing on the chain ladders on the playground. Eddie enjoyed playing, and appeared to be happy and excited. JeVonne was afraid to climb the chain ladders. We talked about what we noticed that was the same for the two boys, and what we noticed that was different. We talked about how we thought they felt, and which clues we had seen that showed us that feeling.

Second Grade: Different Preferences

Last week, we learned about preferences. We talked about what preferences are, and whether we can have the same or different preferences. We started our discussion on preferences with an activity called Human Bar Graphs, where I read different scenarios and students had to show whether they always, sometimes, or never like that activity. Through the activity, we were able to see that we had many different preferences about different things in our classroom.

For the rest of the lesson, we talked about two students who were working on a science assignment. For the assignment, they had to hold a worm and examine its different parts. Tiana was excited to hold the worm, but Brandon was disgusted. Tiana was able to use her feeling clues (face, body and situation) to see that Brandon wasn't feeling the same way she was, so she asked questions to figure out how he was feeling. Once she knew he didn't want to hold the worm, she thought of things she could say or do to help him in this situation.

Students took turns sharing with their partners what they thought Tiana should do to help. Ultimately, Tiana ended up telling Brandon it was okay that he didn't want to touch the worm, and she offered to hold it for him so he could look. We talked about how Tiana used the steps of empathy to figure out how Brandon felt, and because she had empathy she was able to help him.

We ended the lesson with another round of Bar Graphs, this time with students noticing whether they and their partners had similar or different preferences. We practiced having empathy by telling our partners "it is okay to have different preferences" whey they didn't have the same answer.

Kindergarten: Identifying Anger

For this week's lesson, we worked on identifying another feeling: anger. We started our lesson with a review of the feelings we had discussed last week, interested and scared. We reviewed the four skills for learning (focus attention, listen, use self-talk, and be assertive) as well as the three places to look for feelings clues: face, body, and the situation.

We began our lesson with a round of Simon Says to engage all of our skills for learning. We talked about which skills we needed to be successful in this brain builder: focus, listen, and using self-talk. For the rest of the lesson, we talked about a student named Noah, whose sister had taken his very special toy without asking. We used our feeling clues to determine how he was feeling, and most of us agreed he felt angry. We talked about which clues on his face proved this feeling, as well as what the situation was that caused this feeling.

We decided whether feeling was a comfortable or uncomfortable feeling, with all students agreeing that feeling angry is an uncomfortable feeling, but we all feel angry sometimes. We also talked about how it is okay to be angry, but not to be mean or hurtful to others because we are angry. We ended our lesson by thinking about a time we felt angry and sharing that memory with the rest of the class using Be Calm Bunny.

Kids College: Career Paths

For my Kids College course, I am teaching students about careers. Our first lesson focused on the six career paths that most jobs fall within. We started off the lesson by discussing why I had chosen careers for fourth graders. We spent the rest of the time discussing each of the six different career paths and brainstorming the different jobs within each one. When time allowed, we divided into groups where students shared what they want to be when they grow up. For the remainder of our lessons in Kids College, we will be using an online site called Missouri Connections.

To see this lesson's prezi, visit:
http://prezi.com/r3rky11hzd1i/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Second Grade: Feeling Confident

We are continuing our unit on empathy for our January lessons. We started off our lesson with a review of what empathy means, why it is important, and where we can look for feelings clues: faces, bodies, and the situation. We played a Brain Builder called "Choral Clapping" where students were divided intro groups and had to clap on different counts. I was the counter, and I purposely sped up the speed as we started our activity. The purpose of the activity was to frustrate students and show them the clues that told me that feeling -- what I noticed in their facies, bodies, and the situation (I didn't give them time to practice, I sped up the counting when they didn't feel comfortable with the activity).

For the rest of the lesson, we talked about a student named Estela, who was learning how to tell time. She was working very hard on an assignment about telling time, but it was very difficult for her. We talked about how she was feeling: sad, frustrated, confused, and embarrassed. We also brainstormed different ways she could get better at telling time: ask a friend for help, ask her teacher for help, ask a parent for help, practice at home, and use self-talk. Estela practiced for weeks and learned how to tell time. Now she feels confident! We talked about what it means to feel confident, feeling sure about our ability to do something. We also talked about what being confident doesn't mean -- bragging about how good we are.

We ended our lesson  by talking about what makes us feel confident, and the students shared with  their partners what they feel confident about. By the end of the lesson, students knew what it means to be confident, what it looks like when others feel confident, and what they feel confident about.

Kindergarten: More Feelings

This week, we continued our second lesson in the empathy unit with more discussions about feelings. Because of the break, we took a few minutes to recap what we had learned in our last lesson: where to look for feeling clues (faces and body), what a comfortable feeling means, and what an uncomfortable feeling means. We also recapped our four skills for learning: focus attention, listen, use self-talk, and be assertive.

We started warming up our brains with a round of Think, Turn, Tell. Students were asked to think about a time where they felt surprised, and when all students had their answers they shared with their partners. Next, we listened to a new song about feelings, where students had specific body movements for different parts of the song. The movements are as follows:

• Everyone has feelings - hug body
• They show them on their faces - point to cheeks
• They feel them in their bodies - hands on stomach
• They tell it with their voices - cup mouth

We spent the rest of the lesson discussing two different feelings: interested and scared. We looked at a photo of MiKayla, who was listening to her friend explain a new game they could play. We talked about what she may be feeling, and we all agreed she seemed interested. Next, we looked for clues that showed that feeling (eyes wide, looking at friend, not talking). We practiced our interested faces and shared them with our partners. Then we talked about a third place to look for feeling clues: the situation, or what's happening! When we know what is happening, we are more likely to correctly guess how someone is feeling.

We also looked at a photo of a student named Austin, who was at the top of a very tall fireman pole. We agreed that he looked like was scared or afraid, and we found several clues that proved this feeling: his eyes were down, eye brows were down, he was looking down, frowning, he was holding onto the fire pole very tightly. We talked about how we look when we are scared, and how not everyone looks the same when they are scared. We ended the lesson with a review of what we had talked about.