As we wrap up the first half of our school year, I am excited to finally pay a visit to our Kindergarten classrooms. My first goal in our Kindergarten lessons is to introduce myself to students and help them understand my role in our building. Since students will work with a School Counselor throughout all grade levels, I want them to develop a positive association with my role and all the ways I can support them. Students are also given an opportunity to introduce themselves to me, handshake and "nice to meet you" and all! Now comes my challenges of remembering names and faces!
Our first unit in Kindergarten will focus on emotional identification. Being able to name feelings in ourselves and others provides the foundation for a variety of social skills. Students will work on identify happy, mad, and sad in our first lesson. This includes showing the emotion in our own facial expressions and body language, learning to identify it in others, and discussing a time when we experienced these feelings.
At home, a great way to support emotional identification and understanding is through reading. Talk about what the characters in a story are feeling, and have students determine what might have caused that emotion. Students can connect the story to a time when they might have felt similar. This helps students build an emotional vocabulary, and understand that we all experience a variety of feelings.
Our first unit in Kindergarten will focus on emotional identification. Being able to name feelings in ourselves and others provides the foundation for a variety of social skills. Students will work on identify happy, mad, and sad in our first lesson. This includes showing the emotion in our own facial expressions and body language, learning to identify it in others, and discussing a time when we experienced these feelings.
At home, a great way to support emotional identification and understanding is through reading. Talk about what the characters in a story are feeling, and have students determine what might have caused that emotion. Students can connect the story to a time when they might have felt similar. This helps students build an emotional vocabulary, and understand that we all experience a variety of feelings.