Emotional Check-Ins

When my students walk into the classroom in the
morning or after recess, the expectation is
they are ready to actively engage in their
learning.  But sometimes, something in the students' mental, physical, or emotional state may affect their readiness to learn. Sometimes, I can see it when they walk in, it's written all over their face or in their body language.  Sometimes it takes a while before they have some sort of meltdown.  And then there are those times when I can catch it before anything happens. Those wonderful, magical times when I can flip the switch and intervene for their emotional well-being.

You Can Teach Emotions

Children often have difficulty identifying their emotions. To control their emotions, they have to be able to name them and understand them.  A great place to start is with literature.  Some great books to help name emotions are  Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse or The Color Monster for grades K-2; The Name Jar, Harry Potter, or Wonder for grades 3-5; and Wonder, The Percy Jackson series, or The Giver series in grades 6-8. Of course, you will need to use these books as a springboard for conversations or class meetings regarding emotions and emotional reactions.  Anchor charts posted in the classroom can be used to teach and reference these emotions throughout the school year. Once your students can learn to name their emotions, it is easier for them to self regulate and talk about how they feel.


Emotional Check-Ins

We all want our students to learn, but for them to be open to learning, we must help them with emotional self-regulation.  Every child is capable of learning, but they must be in a state of openness and trust, which means they must feel comfortable and ready to accept learning without their emotions interfering.  If we as teachers know how our students feel and help them work through their feelings, they will be in a better place to learn.  

“Inviting our thoughts and feelings into awareness allows us to learn from them rather than be driven by them.”― Daniel J. Siegel, Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation

One easy way to find out how our students feel is through EMOTIONAL CHECK-INS.  There are a variety of ways for you to do an emotional check-in with your students.  One idea is creating a Feelings Chart that the students can mark each day with a stickie note, clip, or some other marker. These charts can indicate how each child feels that day. These charts also allow for a child to show a change in their feelings as the day progresses.  There are also many individual charts available on TPT for the children to color in their mood that day. While there is a myriad of other possibilities,  my personal favorite and the one we are using this year is Emotional Bracelets.

In the morning, when my students walk in, they choose a bracelet matching their current feeling for the day.  This quick visual allows me the opportunity to check in with any child, whether they choose a green (happy), yellow (OK),  red (angry) or blue (sad) bracelet, and try to connect with them and help them to work through their feelings.  Many times, after talking with myself or a peer, students will change their bracelet color just because they were able to express their feelings and be heard.  I've also seen students change their own bracelet color because their friend has a blue (sad) bracelet, which makes them sad too...what a perfect opportunity to work on empathy!  My students love wearing their bracelets and are becoming emotionally aware of themselves and their friends!  For myself, these bracelets give me an insight into my students' feelings and allow me the opportunity to connect with them, and often have empathy for what they are going through and feeling.

With all the complexities of the world today, EMOTIONAL CHECK-INS  are a great way to connect with our students to help them identify and work to understand and control their emotions so that they can learn and grow. Selecting and wearing a bracelet isn't enough. They must be able to verbalize how they are feeling and name their emotion to self-regulate. Are you ready to help your children self regulate?  First, help them identify their feelings so they can recognize what different emotional states look, sound, and feel like.  Then, in some manner, offer them the opportunity to share their feelings with yourself or a peer so that they can self regulate and focus on learning.  As a bonus, you will be connecting with and forming relationships with your students, which in turn will have you wearing that GREEN bracelet more often!

Connecting Emotionally, Roni Weink