Collaboration
Two classes organise an online meeting where they play the following games:
- Pupils from each class have a pack of picture cards or illustrations depicting various emotions (happy, sad, angry, surprised, scared, etc.). It would be nice if the pupils did the drawings. Pupils from each class show their cards to their peers and their peers have to recognise the emotions.
- Once they go through all the cards, pupils from each class choose a card in turns. A pupil from one class will be the ‘actor’, while the others from the other class will be the ‘guessers’. The actor will secretly choose an emotion card without showing it to the others. They will then use their body and facial expressions to portray the chosen emotion without speaking, while the guessers from the partner class observe and try to guess which emotion is being acted out. After the actor has finished portraying the emotion, the guessers take turns guessing which emotion they think it is. They can express their guesses by saying the name of the emotion or by mimicking the facial expression and body language themselves. The pupils name the emotion in their own language and learn how to say the same emotion in the language of their partners. After the video call, the teachers can take a moment to discuss the different emotions and to ask the children to share times when they felt those emotions and what caused it. This helps reinforce their understanding of emotions and provides opportunities for emotional expression and empathy.
The classes then move to making a self-soothe box. In this box, they put things that can be taken out in times of need. This can be when they are very angry, when they miss home or when they need to relax or calm down. The children are encouraged to take things from home, such as a picture of family, pets, happy memories or a small toy like a teddy bear, playdough, fidget toy, a small puzzle etc.
The pupils will also make a hug jar to put in this box. The children draw and cut out many tiny hearts. They can draw on the hearts or paint them. After the hearts have been cut out and decorated, they will hand them out to each other, and each pupil will fill a jar with these hearts. The idea is that when the pupil has very big feelings and they become overwhelmed, they can go to the self-soothe box and take out a heart from the jar. They can give this heart to a person they would like a hug from to signal that it’s time to stop for a moment and help a friend out.
When the self-soothe box has been filled, the teacher can take pictures of them and upload them to TwinSpace. Teachers can share the pictures with their class and discuss similarities and differences. Then, they can ask their pupils to decide on:
- visual reminders of people, places, pets and memories that are important to them;
- sounds or songs that soothe or calm them;
- smells that calm them;
- items that calm them when they touch them.
All this can be compiled into an e-book that can be shared with the whole-school community and parents and can be a nice guide for ideas to soothe yourself.
