What makes you happy ? Or Sad ? Or Mad ?
What makes you happy or sad or angry ? Maybe you have seen my facebook post about the game we played today. As I got the pieces together I was bothered…. why would pizza, mcdonalds, a milkshake and a TV even be in this game ? There is a lot of discussion on my page about why they are there and if they should stay. You might also notice that sometimes I ask loaded questions and then I never return to give my answer. I honestly ask to get objective opinions and help and then I dont want to go back and disagree or offend anyone so I leave it. I will tell you though and you probably know the answer – I took the food items out of this game. I dont think it is healthy to associate good or bad feelings with food. Food is fuel. Sure we all have memories of things our moms or grandmas made but was it really the taste of that food or eating it that made us happy or was it the fact that grandma cared enough to make the same special treat every time we came home ? And TV !! Why would TV be in this game ? The thing is , I think we all approach life and games like this from our own experiences. I have issues with emotional eating so this was taboo for me. The real challenge as a teacher is to accept each childs answer and not try to make them form an opinion based on what you believe . Examples : There was a tile that had music on it. Some kids chose happy and some chose sad. Maybe that child is thinking of a specific song that made him sad . Or maybe noise bothers him. Who knows? There was another tile that had dad on it . If dad is not a positive influence or active in a child’s life they might say sad.. and that is ok. How wonderful is it that a child would feel safe enough to say… my dad makes me sad , or thinking of dad makes me sad.
Gabby and Hugo came to play games and read a book. I so appreciate them coming to teach spanish to my little friends
Aidens dad came to play today too !
Another game we played on the table was the feelings dice. Each child would roll the dice and act out or mimc whatever emotion the child on the dice was having . I took fun pictures of the kids while they did this to make a book .
And… we made a feelings book that they kids colored.