The other day I was texting with Dylan, a PreK teacher in a public school. Dylan's school has been Zooming (or maybe they use Microsoft Teams?) since sometime last March.

Dylan told me that one morning recently he was feel tired and overwhelmed. There's so much going on in the world and he hadn't slept much the night before.

Planning and implementing lessons that day felt daunting.

...but then he remembered that supporting children's social emotional development and building community is THE most important thing we do in preschool.

He realized that some days the most important thing is to just show up and hold space.

Luckily, that's Bunny, the class puppet's specialty.

Dylan explains...

...our Bunny puppet shared that she was feeling 'on the blue'…
[one of 4 colors on the mood meter - roughly connected to feeling mad, sad, happy or excited] because her grown ups were feeling sad and worried.
She didn't know why they were feeling that way, but it made her feel sad and worried, too.
Bunny asked the class to share how they were feeling and said it made her feel better to hear all the different kinds of feelings kids were having.
It helped her to remember that there are so many ways to feel and that whatever she is feeling is okay - and it reminded her that she wouldn't feel this way forever.
Then, we sang our comforting River song all together. This helped bunny feel more calm.
After our song time, we read the story Niko Draws a Feeling. We talked about all the different colors and shapes we might use to express our own emotions.
During Small Group Time this afternoon, we will share our drawings and talk about how our feelings have changed throughout the day

Have you done something similar?

Do you use a class puppet or do something similar without one? Maybe you use one of the feelings posters with all the faces and feelings rather than the mood meter? Perhaps you use a different book about emotions?

The power of "simple" activities like these is tremendous.

Please don't underestimate the power of the work that YOU, Dylan and Bunny are doing.

You may never truly know the depth of the impact of your work.

Reading a book about emotions, naming feelings, singing calming songs, and "just" holding space for children's emotions have a cumulative and profound impact.
…actually, sometimes for that certain kid on a certain day just doing something like this ONCE can have a profound impact.

Can you let me know about one similar(ish?) thing you do to promote social-emotional learning?

I'd love to hear any and all thoughts you have on this! Please share in the comments below.

I can't wait to hear from you!