Emotional Journaling: Suprise

Time to start expanding on those basic feelings and learning further how to identify and express things.  First emotion for expansion: SURPRISE!

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We opened up our journal page on Surprise and all of the underlying feelings within it by writing "surprise" however we wanted. 

My daughter wanted a heart exclamation point.  I went large, all caps, across most of the top of the page. 

We then put four sticky notes on our paper and wrote out the underlying emotions on each of them: Startled, Confused, Amazed, and Excited.  You can use color pencils, markers, or crayons to connect each of these emotions to a color of our choosing.  Beneath the sticky-notes, we wrote the two connecting emotions to each of those.

Once we finished with that, we each selected a word from the tops of the sticky notes to look up in the dictionary to share with the others.  The eldest chose to write the definition beneath each of the words on the sticky notes.  The children were tickled how the definitions in their dictionaries varied and how many included the base emotion "surprise" or the supporting emotions within them. 
We finished by making faces for each emotion on the top-side of the sticky note.

The children struggled to think of how to draw some of the faces so I prompted them to make the face that they would when they would feel that way.  It helped them a lot to then realize what they could do to draw the face.

Feel free to link up in the comments.  What faces will you make?

Emotional Journaling: Fear

After reviewing the responses of the children, I noticed that one of them was uncertain of something that they could identify connecting their life experiences to that emotion.  Was this trying to seem brave?  Was this because of a lack of understanding of what fear means?  We can find out which this is by clarifying what fear is.

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We wrote the letters for fear down the side of our paper to make an acrostic poem.  We wrote out things that we do when we feel fear for each letter.  This took a lot of time and thought for each of us, I think the letter E was the most difficult one for me to think of something for.

We all shared our words for each letter as we wrote them out to help give others ideas of words that they can use and help them to reflect if that is something that occurs when they feel fear.  We would have short discussions on why we used some of the words.  I picked 'embarrassed" (which I spelled wrong in my own journal, OH NO!) because something I am afraid of is Howard the Duck.  Not everyone is afraid of Howard the Duck so I would feel...  That allows them to internally reflect on things that they're afraid of but might not be willing to share because of embarrassment and that it is okay to be afraid and still speak up about it.
This led into our next prompt, what we can do to be brave!  What can you do to help calm down when you feel fear?  What can others do to help you when you feel fear?

My daughter wrote screaming for help which led us into another conversation about speaking up when we encounter fear.  I used my fear of Howard the Duck again for this talking about if I went to a party and people were watching Howard the Duck, no one would know how that makes me feel but if I speak up and say "Hey, Howard the Duck really freaks me out.  Could we watch something else?" that it lets people know and others can be understanding of how I am feeling.  By speaking up, we can have our fears addressed and receive assistance from others in working through it.
What if we are frozen by fear?  How can we calm down enough to even begin to speak?

We discussed one of the Conscious Discipline calm down techniques of S.T.A.R. and practiced doing it three times.

Feel free to link up in the comments.  How do you handle fear?

Emotional Journaling: The Base Emotions

Some people have emotional intelligence.  They understand how they feel, how they react when they feel certain ways, and have the words to tell others how to best comfort them in those situations.  They understand how emotions can stir reactions in other and better support others in those moments.
Most children are building their emotional knowledge.  Some only get an understanding of the base emotions: happy, sad, angry, etc.  What are we doing to help children become successful in their understanding of emotions?  To learn more than just being happy or sad?  To help them understand how to calm down and channel their anger in a constructive way?

I have begun working on Guided Journals with the children of my home.  You can follow along by writing your own journal or making your own blog post discussing these points.

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I printed copies of Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions for each of the kids to put on their first page.  We took color pencils and colored each emotion of the innermost wheel with colors that we connected to those emotions.  ONLY COLOR THOSE INNER EMOTIONS.  Save the rest for later.

My daughter shared that she selected the colors for each piece based on characters in Inside Out.  

On the back of the page, we listed down the side those emotions in any order of our choosing.  Then we wrote what makes us feel that way next to each emotions.
Beneath that section, we wrote a way that others could help us to feel happy again or things that we could do for ourselves to feel happy.

As you can see, there is no focus on accurate spelling.  The idea is to be comfortable with identifying your feelings, connecting experiences to those feelings, and demonstrating an understanding of those feelings.  The more we write, the more improvement in spelling and grammar will naturally occur. 

Feel free to link up in the comments.  How are you feeling?