The Social Emotional Learning (SEL) aspect of a child is the foundation that supports all areas of development. The stronger awareness & support a child is provided, the more equipped the child will be to navigate their growth in all aspects of their life. SEL development heavily affects & influences the child, therefore providing & using as many tools as possible early on will only benefit the children in an impactful way.
Young children acquire SEL competencies in ways that are often different from how they acquire competence in the naming of letters or numbers. SEL skills emerge through children’s experience in close relationships & the varied exposures that occur in relational experience, such as shared conversation, warm nurturance, & intentional guided learning capacities for sociability, responsibility, & self- control. Just as with anything in the learning process of a child, the more you provide language + literacy along with hands-on experiences that explore SEL, the stronger the foundation is established for the child.
This month we have been exploring emotions & feelings. The Color Monster by Anna Llenas is a book that associates colors with emotions in a way that is easy for young children to process & understand.
1. Jumbled Up Feelings Marble Painting// We set out trays with a monster as a canvas, all the paint colors associated with the mixed up emotions the monster feels in the beginning of the story, & marbles to paint what mixed up feelings look like.
2. Invitation to Sort Our Feelings: We set out a tuff tray with a whole bunch of colorful loose parts, empty clear jars, & cut outs of each emotion in color from the book. We asked each child to communicate what they were feeling today, then sort through the jumbled up colorful loose parts, pick the color, & sort it in the emotion jar just like the book.
3.Invitation to Create a Playdough Color Monster: We provided playdough in all the colors of the emotions angry(red), happy(yellow), calm(green), sad(blue), scared (black), & love (pink). The children were invited to create their very own Color Monster with the playdough & loose parts.
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