Have you ever felt excited about doing something new and nervous at the same time?
What about feeling sad that your child no longer wants to cuddle on your lap, and happy that they are growing up and branching out to play with others?
As adults, we understand that mixed emotions are a part of life, but children can feel confused when flooded with a variety of emotions all at the same time. We can guide them in labeling their feelings and help them to identify why they feel that way:
“It sounds like you are happy to go back to school and see your friends, AND you are sad to leave me after we have had a nice long weekend together.” When we use the conjunction AND instead of BUT, we teach them that it is OK to have those two very different feelings at the same time. It doesn’t have to be just one or the other.
This week the Puppet Kids experience two different emotions at the same time and discover that this is the Power of AND.
- They can feel sad about not getting to work with one friend AND happy about working with another.
- They can feel disappointed about not getting to read a familiar book AND proud of learning to read a new and harder one.
- They can feel anxious about a change in the schedule AND feel excited about a special lesson.
- They can miss their teacher when she’s out sick AND have a good time with a substitute teacher.
As your children watch these videos, they can start to identify times that they too have mixed feelings and learn that it is okay. This week of lessons includes four scenario videos that you can watch with your students Monday through Thursday with follow-up questions for class discussions. Student Reporters interview the Puppet Pals about times they have felt “ nerve-cited” ( nervous AND excited) in Puppet Pal News. This week also includes a Simple Summary video in Spanish for those who are developing simple language skills, while focusing on the target social-emotional skill of the week.
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