I welcomed four students from Year 1 this week who shared their learning around feelings and how we express them as part of their PYP Unit of Inquiry and The Resilience Project. It is essential for students to learn about feelings, to identify how they feel physically when they are in the grips of strong emotion, and what to do to de-escalate (if needed). Our younger students (and some older) often lack the vocabulary to name more nuanced emotions and often stick to "good" or "happy" or "sad" when they may be feeling excited, nervous, overwhelmed, tearful, irate, annoyed, or frustrated, etc. When a child can correctly label an emotion, they are many times more likely to be able to act appropriately in dealing with that feeling, especially with negative emotions. Instead of hitting out, a child may then be able to turn to learned strategies to handle their feelings, which empowers them further in their growth journey. It also helps children to develop empathy and understanding and tolerance - all dispositions that help them get on in life.

"Emotion knowledge involves the ability to perceive and label emotions, which is a crucial foundation for more complex skills such as empathy. Young children often experience intense emotions, such as sadness, joy, anxiety, and anger, and they first reflect on and come to understand their own emotions, according to the meaning attributed to them within their social and cultural contexts, before generalising these understandings to the emotions of others.

Improved levels of emotion-knowledge support children to better understand their emotional experiences, and communicate, discuss and reflect on feelings, as well as to better understand the causes and consequences of particular feelings. Emotion-knowledge helps children to develop skills in self-regulation with increased awareness of their own emotions, and engage in more successful interactions with peers, inhibit aggression and increase prosocial behaviours and empathy." Read this article for further information.

Melanie, Maia, Taylor, and Summer showed me their learning, and they had all written about then and where they might feel the emotions of being silly, happy, sad, angry, and surprised. Knowing that these feelings can occur in many contexts helps our students go deeper in their understanding. Kei te ako koe mo o kare-a-roto tamariki. Ka pai!