Kindergarten
Kindergartners will be able to:
Second Step Lessons: Feelings, More Feelings and Identifying Anger
Lesson Concepts:
Children who accurately identify emotions tend to be less aggressive and have better social skills. Children with high emotional understanding at the beginning of elementary school are more likely than other children to show academic gains by third grade. An important part of empathy is to understand typical causes of emotions. Most five and six year olds can explain the causes of their own and others' emotions. Being able to accurately read the feelings of others and identify their own feelings is especially important for children who interact in an aggressive manner.
Together we explored a variety of feelings. I showed the class faces and we discussed what feeling the kindergartner in the picture was showing. We then put that feeling word in a category; either comfortable or uncomfortable. All feelings are okay, some are comfortable and some are uncomfortable. We discussed how the feeling "angry" was okay (many are surprised by this). We talked about how the feeling is okay it is how some people choose to react when they are angry that is not okay. We listened and dance to two songs to help us learn more about feelings. One song is called: "The Feeling Song" that was developed by the Second Step program. The refrain sounds like this: "Everyone has feelings. We show them on our faces. We feel them in our bodies. We tell them with our voices." The remainder of the song gave us the opportunity to practice showing what the specific feelings would look like. The other song is by The Learning Station and is called: "Ain't it Great to Be Crazy." This is a fun song that reminds us it is okay to be silly sometimes too :) We also talked about the word empathy and what it means: Being able to feel or understand what someone else is feeling. We practices this by acting out various situations. I would read a scenario like: "You are asked to hold a worm." The students would show and tell what feeling they would have. We discussed how we all can have different feelings for the same situation and all our feelings are okay, even if they are different. Together we read The Way I Feel by: Janan Cain. We ended the lesson by listening to a fun story about Tony Chestnut and doing the silly Tony Chestnut song along with the singers and dancers from The Learning Station. If we had time we drew a picture about how we felt the day of the lesson: "Today I feel...."
- Name happy and sad.
- Identify that happy is a comfortable feeling and sad is an uncomfortable feelings.
- Identify a variety of feelings.
- Name interested and afraid/scared.
- Name angry.
Second Step Lessons: Feelings, More Feelings and Identifying Anger
Lesson Concepts:
- If you can name your own feelings, it will help you figure out how other people feel.
- All feelings are natural. Some feelings are comfortable, and some are uncomfortable.
- Physical clues can help you identify others' feelings.
- Situational clues can help you identify others' feelings.
- It is natural to feel angry, but feeling angry is uncomfortable.
- It is not okay to be mean or hurt others when you are angry.
- Empathy means feeling or understanding what someone else feels.
Children who accurately identify emotions tend to be less aggressive and have better social skills. Children with high emotional understanding at the beginning of elementary school are more likely than other children to show academic gains by third grade. An important part of empathy is to understand typical causes of emotions. Most five and six year olds can explain the causes of their own and others' emotions. Being able to accurately read the feelings of others and identify their own feelings is especially important for children who interact in an aggressive manner.
Together we explored a variety of feelings. I showed the class faces and we discussed what feeling the kindergartner in the picture was showing. We then put that feeling word in a category; either comfortable or uncomfortable. All feelings are okay, some are comfortable and some are uncomfortable. We discussed how the feeling "angry" was okay (many are surprised by this). We talked about how the feeling is okay it is how some people choose to react when they are angry that is not okay. We listened and dance to two songs to help us learn more about feelings. One song is called: "The Feeling Song" that was developed by the Second Step program. The refrain sounds like this: "Everyone has feelings. We show them on our faces. We feel them in our bodies. We tell them with our voices." The remainder of the song gave us the opportunity to practice showing what the specific feelings would look like. The other song is by The Learning Station and is called: "Ain't it Great to Be Crazy." This is a fun song that reminds us it is okay to be silly sometimes too :) We also talked about the word empathy and what it means: Being able to feel or understand what someone else is feeling. We practices this by acting out various situations. I would read a scenario like: "You are asked to hold a worm." The students would show and tell what feeling they would have. We discussed how we all can have different feelings for the same situation and all our feelings are okay, even if they are different. Together we read The Way I Feel by: Janan Cain. We ended the lesson by listening to a fun story about Tony Chestnut and doing the silly Tony Chestnut song along with the singers and dancers from The Learning Station. If we had time we drew a picture about how we felt the day of the lesson: "Today I feel...."
First Grade
1st graders will be able to:
Lesson Concepts:
Children who accurately identify emotions tend to be less aggressive and have better social skills. Children with high emotional understanding at the beginning of elementary school are more likely than other children to show academic gains by third grade. An important part of empathy is learning to understand the situational causes of people's emotions. Becoming better at identifying their own and others' feelings through physical, environmental, and situational clues builds a solid foundation for students' development of empathy and compassion.
Our friends Puppy and Snail (puppets) visited our lesson today to help us identify a variety of feelings. We discussed how there are more feelings than happy, sad, mad or scared. I showed the first graders a few pictures of first graders expressing an emotion and they idetnified what emotion they though the students was feeling. We talked about how we can tell a lot about how someone is feeling by looking at their face and body for clues. However, sometimes we need to know the situation too. We also talked about the word empathy and what it means: Being able to feel or understand what someone else is feeling. We listened and moved to "The Feeling Song" that was developed by the Second Step program. The refrain sounds like this: "Everyone has feelings. We show them on our faces. We feel them in our bodies. We tell them with our voices." The remainder of the song gave us the opportunity to practice showing what the specific feelings would look like. Then we played a game about feelings. I would call a group of students to stand in front of their class to be the "actors." I would read a situation and they would show their classmates how they would feel in that situation. An example is: "You keep trying to do your math problems, but you are stuck." I challenged the students to use feeling words other than happy, sad, mad or scared. We made a t-chart to categorize the various feeling words there are and put them in the comfortable or uncomfortable column. I reminded the students about what we learned last lesson about our brains. Our amygdala is our security guard and warns us when we are having an uncomfortable feeling. It warns us by sending signals through our body that don't feel so good, like: "butterflies in our stomach, face getting hot, heart beating faster." That is our signal that we need to calm our bodies before reacting. We discussed how the feeling "angry" was okay (many are surprised by this). We talked about how the feeling is okay, it is how some people choose to react when they are angry that is not okay. We got up to move and sing along with another song by The Learning Station that is called: "Ain't it Great to Be Crazy." This is a fun song that reminds us it is okay to be silly sometimes too :) As a class we played: PBS Arthur About Face to continue practicing what we learned about identifying the feel face and word with the correct situation. We also read the book: Today I Feel Silly: And Other Moods that Make My Day by: Jamie Lee Curtis. We ended the lesson by listening to a fun story about Tony Chestnut and doing the silly Tony Chestnut song along with the singers and dancers from The Learning Station. If we had time, we drew feeling faces to show what various feeling words looked like.
- Name feelings.
Lesson Concepts:
- Identifying your own feelings helps you know how others feel.
- Everyone experiences strong feelings sometimes.
- Some feelings are comfortable, and some are uncomfortable.
- Physical clues can help you identify others' feelings.
- Situational clues can help you identify others' feelings.
- Understanding how others feel improves relationships.
Children who accurately identify emotions tend to be less aggressive and have better social skills. Children with high emotional understanding at the beginning of elementary school are more likely than other children to show academic gains by third grade. An important part of empathy is learning to understand the situational causes of people's emotions. Becoming better at identifying their own and others' feelings through physical, environmental, and situational clues builds a solid foundation for students' development of empathy and compassion.
Our friends Puppy and Snail (puppets) visited our lesson today to help us identify a variety of feelings. We discussed how there are more feelings than happy, sad, mad or scared. I showed the first graders a few pictures of first graders expressing an emotion and they idetnified what emotion they though the students was feeling. We talked about how we can tell a lot about how someone is feeling by looking at their face and body for clues. However, sometimes we need to know the situation too. We also talked about the word empathy and what it means: Being able to feel or understand what someone else is feeling. We listened and moved to "The Feeling Song" that was developed by the Second Step program. The refrain sounds like this: "Everyone has feelings. We show them on our faces. We feel them in our bodies. We tell them with our voices." The remainder of the song gave us the opportunity to practice showing what the specific feelings would look like. Then we played a game about feelings. I would call a group of students to stand in front of their class to be the "actors." I would read a situation and they would show their classmates how they would feel in that situation. An example is: "You keep trying to do your math problems, but you are stuck." I challenged the students to use feeling words other than happy, sad, mad or scared. We made a t-chart to categorize the various feeling words there are and put them in the comfortable or uncomfortable column. I reminded the students about what we learned last lesson about our brains. Our amygdala is our security guard and warns us when we are having an uncomfortable feeling. It warns us by sending signals through our body that don't feel so good, like: "butterflies in our stomach, face getting hot, heart beating faster." That is our signal that we need to calm our bodies before reacting. We discussed how the feeling "angry" was okay (many are surprised by this). We talked about how the feeling is okay, it is how some people choose to react when they are angry that is not okay. We got up to move and sing along with another song by The Learning Station that is called: "Ain't it Great to Be Crazy." This is a fun song that reminds us it is okay to be silly sometimes too :) As a class we played: PBS Arthur About Face to continue practicing what we learned about identifying the feel face and word with the correct situation. We also read the book: Today I Feel Silly: And Other Moods that Make My Day by: Jamie Lee Curtis. We ended the lesson by listening to a fun story about Tony Chestnut and doing the silly Tony Chestnut song along with the singers and dancers from The Learning Station. If we had time, we drew feeling faces to show what various feeling words looked like.
Second Grade
2nd graders will be able to:
Second Step Lessons: Identifying Feelings, Learning More About Feelings, Feeling Confident
Lesson Concepts:
The ability to identify others' feelings using physical, verbal, and situational clues is essential to developing empathy. Being able to label feelings as comfortable or uncomfortable lays the foundation for coping effectively with difficult emotions. Accurately identifying others' feelings helps students understand their peers. Elementary students may misinterpret how someone feels if they assume others react and feel the same way they would. Understanding that people can have different feelings in similar situations, and that they feelings can change, helps students develop empathy and perspective taking - key prerequisites for compassion, conflict avoidance, and success with peers. Students often hold the harmful beliefs that the ability to succeed in school is predetermined and natural, and that some students are smart and some are not. Students who understand that success comes from practice and perseverance are more likely to work hard and persevere. This lessons helped students understand that confidence in their abilities can come from the success they earn when they practice and work hard.
We started our lesson by playing Simon Says, but with feelings. I would say: "Simon says: show me angry" and the students would show me what angry looks like. Then we watched a Second Step video and pretended to be detectives looking for clues that tell us how the actors in the video were feeling. We learned that we can tell how someone is feeling by looking at their face and body, but sometimes we need know what the situation of what is happening to really know. The video was about a 2nd grader and his family who were on a hike, Daniel gets lost and his family is searching for him, then find him. We discussed how Daniel was feeling scared or worried when he was lost. I asked the students how their body feels when they are scared or worried. The list include: butterflies in their stomach, heart beating fast, getting sweaty, and getting tears in their eyes. We made a t-chart to categorize the various feeling words there are and put them in the comfortable or uncomfortable column. I reminded the students about what we learned last lesson about our brains. Our amygdala is our security guard and warns us when we are having an uncomfortable feeling. It warns us by sending signals through our body that don't feel so good, like: "butterflies in our stomach, face getting hot, heart beating faster." That is our signal that we need to calm our bodies before reacting. We discussed how the feeling "angry" was okay (many are surprised by this). We talked about how the feeling is okay, it is how some people choose to react when they are angry that is not okay. We got up to move and sing along with another song by The Learning Station that is called: "Ain't it Great to Be Crazy." This is a fun song that reminds us it is okay to be silly sometimes too :) We also discussed how feelings often change and how two people can have different feelings to the same situation. It doesn't make one person's feelings right and the other wrong, they are all okay. We practiced understanding this and offering empathy: feeling or understanding what someone else is feeling. I asked a group of students to be the "actors." I would read a situation, like: "You were chosen to speak at the school assembly." The "actors" showed their classmates how they would feel. We discussed how some had the same feelings and some had different feelings. We practiced what they could say to their classmates who were having uncomfortable feelings. We did a brain break by listening to a fun story about Tony Chestnut and doing the silly Tony Chestnut song along with the singers and dancers from The Learning Station. We specifically talked about the feeling word: confident. We looked at a picture of a 2nd grade girl who was having a hard time learning about how to tell time. We practiced having empathy for the 2nd grading too. We discussed how the way to feel more confident in something is to practice, practice, practice. We learned how practicing helps our brains remember how to do things, so we feel more confident. I read Leo the Lightning Bug by: Eric Drachman. If there was time we made our own lightning bug to remind us that with practice we can get better at anything!
- Name a variety of feelings.
- Distinguish between comfortable and uncomfortable feelings.
- Label their own feelings as the same as or different from other’s feelings.
- Identify physical and situational clues that indicate the feeling of confidence.
- Detect when their own and others’ feelings change.
Second Step Lessons: Identifying Feelings, Learning More About Feelings, Feeling Confident
Lesson Concepts:
- Clues in faces, bodies, and situations help you notice and understand how people are feeling.
- Everyone feels a wide variety of emotions.
- Some feelings are comfortable, and others are uncomfortable.
- People can have different feelings about the same situation.
- People's feelings can change.
- Empathy is feeling or understanding what someone else is feeling.
- Practicing helps you build your confidence.
- Feeling confident helps you do your best and makes you proud.
- Noticing how others feel and understanding that their feelings can change helps you have empathy.
The ability to identify others' feelings using physical, verbal, and situational clues is essential to developing empathy. Being able to label feelings as comfortable or uncomfortable lays the foundation for coping effectively with difficult emotions. Accurately identifying others' feelings helps students understand their peers. Elementary students may misinterpret how someone feels if they assume others react and feel the same way they would. Understanding that people can have different feelings in similar situations, and that they feelings can change, helps students develop empathy and perspective taking - key prerequisites for compassion, conflict avoidance, and success with peers. Students often hold the harmful beliefs that the ability to succeed in school is predetermined and natural, and that some students are smart and some are not. Students who understand that success comes from practice and perseverance are more likely to work hard and persevere. This lessons helped students understand that confidence in their abilities can come from the success they earn when they practice and work hard.
We started our lesson by playing Simon Says, but with feelings. I would say: "Simon says: show me angry" and the students would show me what angry looks like. Then we watched a Second Step video and pretended to be detectives looking for clues that tell us how the actors in the video were feeling. We learned that we can tell how someone is feeling by looking at their face and body, but sometimes we need know what the situation of what is happening to really know. The video was about a 2nd grader and his family who were on a hike, Daniel gets lost and his family is searching for him, then find him. We discussed how Daniel was feeling scared or worried when he was lost. I asked the students how their body feels when they are scared or worried. The list include: butterflies in their stomach, heart beating fast, getting sweaty, and getting tears in their eyes. We made a t-chart to categorize the various feeling words there are and put them in the comfortable or uncomfortable column. I reminded the students about what we learned last lesson about our brains. Our amygdala is our security guard and warns us when we are having an uncomfortable feeling. It warns us by sending signals through our body that don't feel so good, like: "butterflies in our stomach, face getting hot, heart beating faster." That is our signal that we need to calm our bodies before reacting. We discussed how the feeling "angry" was okay (many are surprised by this). We talked about how the feeling is okay, it is how some people choose to react when they are angry that is not okay. We got up to move and sing along with another song by The Learning Station that is called: "Ain't it Great to Be Crazy." This is a fun song that reminds us it is okay to be silly sometimes too :) We also discussed how feelings often change and how two people can have different feelings to the same situation. It doesn't make one person's feelings right and the other wrong, they are all okay. We practiced understanding this and offering empathy: feeling or understanding what someone else is feeling. I asked a group of students to be the "actors." I would read a situation, like: "You were chosen to speak at the school assembly." The "actors" showed their classmates how they would feel. We discussed how some had the same feelings and some had different feelings. We practiced what they could say to their classmates who were having uncomfortable feelings. We did a brain break by listening to a fun story about Tony Chestnut and doing the silly Tony Chestnut song along with the singers and dancers from The Learning Station. We specifically talked about the feeling word: confident. We looked at a picture of a 2nd grade girl who was having a hard time learning about how to tell time. We practiced having empathy for the 2nd grading too. We discussed how the way to feel more confident in something is to practice, practice, practice. We learned how practicing helps our brains remember how to do things, so we feel more confident. I read Leo the Lightning Bug by: Eric Drachman. If there was time we made our own lightning bug to remind us that with practice we can get better at anything!
Third Grade
3rd graders will be able to:
Second Step Lessons: Identifying Others' Feelings, Understanding Perspectives, Conflicting Feelings
Lesson Concepts:
Identifying others' feelings using physical, verbal, and situational clues is essential to empathy development. Understanding that people can have different feelings in similar situations, and that feelings can change, helps students develop empathy and perspective-taking skills. Accurately identifying others' feelings helps students make friends and understand conflict. This lesson helps build students' perspective-taking ability by examining scenarios where people have different feelings about the same thing. Perspective taking is a critical skill for working in groups, making friends, and successfully resolving interpersonal conflict. This lesson also expands students' empathy skills by helping them learn that a person can have different, and even conflicting, emotions at the same time. Understanding this can improve students' ability to understand others' feelings - even when feelings are complex = and increase students' ability to use empathy to build friendships and solve conflicts.
We started our lesson by playing Simon Says, but with feelings. I would say: "Simon says: show me angry" and the students would show me what angry looks like. Then we looked at four pictures of 3rd graders who had different feelings. I asked the students to tell me what they thought each student was feeling. Then we watched the Second Step video that had the four students we just looked at in a scene. The 3rd graders in the video were at lunch and one of the boys accidentally spilled his milk on a classmate. We stopped the video to discuss if what we originally thought they were feeling was right. This helped us learn that sometimes we have to know the situation before we know how someone is really feeling. Looking at their face and body for clues is helpful, but clues from the situation gives us more information. We stopped the video where Kyle the student who spilled his milk ran out of the lunchroom after it happened. Jenni is who he spilled the milk on and Meg was sitting nearby. Meg said to Jenni: "look he is running away, I can't believe he would do that." We talked about Meg's response, then watched the rest of the video. It turns out he was running away to get paper towels to help. I talked to the students about jumping to conclusions and how jumping to conclusions can make the problem bigger and cause our feelings to get bigger when they don't need to be. We discussed how Meg didn't help her friend calm down and ways she could have chosen "positive intent" by saying: "look he's running away, I bet he is getting some help" and how that would've been more helpful. We also discussed how sometimes people have different feelings for the same situation. Jenni was upset when the milk spilled on her, some other kids may think that is funny. We talked about how everyone's feelings are okay. We need to be able to understand different perspectives to offer empathy and be helpful to our classmates. We practiced this as a class. I asked a group of "actors" to come to the front of the room to show us how they would feel in response to various situations. For example, I would say: "You are playing goalie for the soccer game." Some students were happy and excited, others were nervous. We then discussed how thinking how others see a situation helps us have empathy. We made a t-chart to categorize the various feeling words there are and put them in the comfortable or uncomfortable column. I reminded the students about what we learned last lesson about our brains. Our amygdala is our security guard and warns us when we are having an uncomfortable feeling. It warns us by sending signals through our body that don't feel so good, like: "butterflies in our stomach, face getting hot, heart beating faster." That is our signal that we need to calm our bodies before reacting. We discussed how the feeling "angry" was okay (many are surprised by this). We talked about how the feeling is okay, it is how some people choose to react when they are angry that is not okay. We got up to move and sing along with another song by The Learning Station that is called: "Ain't it Great to Be Crazy." This is a fun song that reminds us it is okay to be silly sometimes too :) We also learned that feelings can be conflicting in the same situation. For example, a student could feel excited to move to a new house, but sad to leave his friends. We watched Pixar's Partly Cloudy short clip to show how the cloud had changing feelings and how he could have prevented an uncomfortable feeling if he wouldn't have jumped to conclusions. We did a brain break by listening to a fun story about Tony Chestnut and doing the silly Tony Chestnut song along with the singers and dancers from The Learning Station.
- Name variety of feelings
- Determine others’ feelings
- Label their own feelings as the same as or different from others’ feelings.
- Determine whether others’ feelings have changed, in response to scenarios
- Identify two conflicting feelings a person could have in response to scenarios
- Explain possible reasons for someone’s conflicting feelings
Second Step Lessons: Identifying Others' Feelings, Understanding Perspectives, Conflicting Feelings
Lesson Concepts:
- Looking for clues on a person's face or body in the situation helps you notice and understand how that person is feeling.
- People can have different feelings about the same situation and their feelings can change.
- All feelings are natural.
- Empathy is feeling or understanding what someone else is feeling.
- Thinking about others' perspectives helps you have empathy for them.
- You can have conflicting feelings about a situation.
- Having empathy helps you notice when others' feelings are the same as or different from yours.
Identifying others' feelings using physical, verbal, and situational clues is essential to empathy development. Understanding that people can have different feelings in similar situations, and that feelings can change, helps students develop empathy and perspective-taking skills. Accurately identifying others' feelings helps students make friends and understand conflict. This lesson helps build students' perspective-taking ability by examining scenarios where people have different feelings about the same thing. Perspective taking is a critical skill for working in groups, making friends, and successfully resolving interpersonal conflict. This lesson also expands students' empathy skills by helping them learn that a person can have different, and even conflicting, emotions at the same time. Understanding this can improve students' ability to understand others' feelings - even when feelings are complex = and increase students' ability to use empathy to build friendships and solve conflicts.
We started our lesson by playing Simon Says, but with feelings. I would say: "Simon says: show me angry" and the students would show me what angry looks like. Then we looked at four pictures of 3rd graders who had different feelings. I asked the students to tell me what they thought each student was feeling. Then we watched the Second Step video that had the four students we just looked at in a scene. The 3rd graders in the video were at lunch and one of the boys accidentally spilled his milk on a classmate. We stopped the video to discuss if what we originally thought they were feeling was right. This helped us learn that sometimes we have to know the situation before we know how someone is really feeling. Looking at their face and body for clues is helpful, but clues from the situation gives us more information. We stopped the video where Kyle the student who spilled his milk ran out of the lunchroom after it happened. Jenni is who he spilled the milk on and Meg was sitting nearby. Meg said to Jenni: "look he is running away, I can't believe he would do that." We talked about Meg's response, then watched the rest of the video. It turns out he was running away to get paper towels to help. I talked to the students about jumping to conclusions and how jumping to conclusions can make the problem bigger and cause our feelings to get bigger when they don't need to be. We discussed how Meg didn't help her friend calm down and ways she could have chosen "positive intent" by saying: "look he's running away, I bet he is getting some help" and how that would've been more helpful. We also discussed how sometimes people have different feelings for the same situation. Jenni was upset when the milk spilled on her, some other kids may think that is funny. We talked about how everyone's feelings are okay. We need to be able to understand different perspectives to offer empathy and be helpful to our classmates. We practiced this as a class. I asked a group of "actors" to come to the front of the room to show us how they would feel in response to various situations. For example, I would say: "You are playing goalie for the soccer game." Some students were happy and excited, others were nervous. We then discussed how thinking how others see a situation helps us have empathy. We made a t-chart to categorize the various feeling words there are and put them in the comfortable or uncomfortable column. I reminded the students about what we learned last lesson about our brains. Our amygdala is our security guard and warns us when we are having an uncomfortable feeling. It warns us by sending signals through our body that don't feel so good, like: "butterflies in our stomach, face getting hot, heart beating faster." That is our signal that we need to calm our bodies before reacting. We discussed how the feeling "angry" was okay (many are surprised by this). We talked about how the feeling is okay, it is how some people choose to react when they are angry that is not okay. We got up to move and sing along with another song by The Learning Station that is called: "Ain't it Great to Be Crazy." This is a fun song that reminds us it is okay to be silly sometimes too :) We also learned that feelings can be conflicting in the same situation. For example, a student could feel excited to move to a new house, but sad to leave his friends. We watched Pixar's Partly Cloudy short clip to show how the cloud had changing feelings and how he could have prevented an uncomfortable feeling if he wouldn't have jumped to conclusions. We did a brain break by listening to a fun story about Tony Chestnut and doing the silly Tony Chestnut song along with the singers and dancers from The Learning Station.
Fourth Grade
4th graders will be able to:
Second Step Lessons: Understanding Complex Feelings
Lesson Concepts:
Understanding others' feelings can help students have better peer relationships. Students with good friendships and social connections are more likely to be happy and successful. Between the ages of 9 and 11, most children learn that a person can have simultaneous, but very different, emotions: "I'm sad about moving because I'm leaving my best friend, and I'm happy about moving because I'll be closer to my cousins." Understanding this about themselves can improve students' ability to understand others' feelings even when feelings are complex. This increases students' ability to use empathy to build friendships and solve conflicts.
We started the lesson by watching the music video: "Walk, Walk, Walk" on Second Step. I told the students to specifically listen to what to do when other people are "showing strong feelings." The music video emphasizes the importance of extending empathy and walking in someone else's shoes to understand what they are feeling. Next we watched a Second Step video about 4th graders who were at their after school program. Gabriella was feeling disappointed because she was counting on playing stuffed animals with Emma, but when she got there Emma was dancing with another friend. We discussed how Emma was having complicated feelings. She was feeling excited to dance with her friend because she just started dance class, but was sad that she disappointed her friend for changing the plans. We discussed how we could put ourselves in Gabriella's shoes and show empathy to her. We also discussed that sometimes friends interests change, and just because interests change and new friends are made, doesn't mean they don't like their old friends anymore. We also talked about how when a friend offers empathy, it's then your choice to accept it or not. For example, if Emma went to talk to Gabriella about the situation and invited her to join and Gabriella chose to not join and still stay mad, then that is Gabriella's choice. We are all in control of our own feelings, no one make you feel any certain way without your permission. We learned about different feeling words. We made a t-chart to categorize the various feeling words there are and put them in the comfortable or uncomfortable column. I reminded the students about what we learned last lesson about our brains. Our amygdala is our security guard and warns us when we are having an uncomfortable feeling. It warns us by sending signals through our body that don't feel so good, like: "butterflies in our stomach, face getting hot, heart beating faster." That is our signal that we need to calm our bodies before reacting. We discussed how the feeling "angry" was okay (many are surprised by this). We talked about how the feeling is okay, it is how some people choose to react when they are angry that is not okay. The students practiced identifying different and conflicting feelings by working with partners. I would read a situation and they would tell their partner how they would feel. For example: "You just got invited to spend the night at a friend's house, but you realized you will miss family movie night." We did a brain break by listening to a fun story about Tony Chestnut and doing the silly Tony Chestnut song along with the singers and dancers from The Learning Station. I read How Are You Peeling? by: Saxton Freymann. The students then had time to color a "Feelings Tree." The students were asked to circle the figures connected with the most.
- Identify multiple feelings
- Give possible reasons for multiple feelings
Second Step Lessons: Understanding Complex Feelings
Lesson Concepts:
- It is possible to have more than one feelings at the same time.
- Being able to understand that others might have complex feelings is an important part of empathy.
Understanding others' feelings can help students have better peer relationships. Students with good friendships and social connections are more likely to be happy and successful. Between the ages of 9 and 11, most children learn that a person can have simultaneous, but very different, emotions: "I'm sad about moving because I'm leaving my best friend, and I'm happy about moving because I'll be closer to my cousins." Understanding this about themselves can improve students' ability to understand others' feelings even when feelings are complex. This increases students' ability to use empathy to build friendships and solve conflicts.
We started the lesson by watching the music video: "Walk, Walk, Walk" on Second Step. I told the students to specifically listen to what to do when other people are "showing strong feelings." The music video emphasizes the importance of extending empathy and walking in someone else's shoes to understand what they are feeling. Next we watched a Second Step video about 4th graders who were at their after school program. Gabriella was feeling disappointed because she was counting on playing stuffed animals with Emma, but when she got there Emma was dancing with another friend. We discussed how Emma was having complicated feelings. She was feeling excited to dance with her friend because she just started dance class, but was sad that she disappointed her friend for changing the plans. We discussed how we could put ourselves in Gabriella's shoes and show empathy to her. We also discussed that sometimes friends interests change, and just because interests change and new friends are made, doesn't mean they don't like their old friends anymore. We also talked about how when a friend offers empathy, it's then your choice to accept it or not. For example, if Emma went to talk to Gabriella about the situation and invited her to join and Gabriella chose to not join and still stay mad, then that is Gabriella's choice. We are all in control of our own feelings, no one make you feel any certain way without your permission. We learned about different feeling words. We made a t-chart to categorize the various feeling words there are and put them in the comfortable or uncomfortable column. I reminded the students about what we learned last lesson about our brains. Our amygdala is our security guard and warns us when we are having an uncomfortable feeling. It warns us by sending signals through our body that don't feel so good, like: "butterflies in our stomach, face getting hot, heart beating faster." That is our signal that we need to calm our bodies before reacting. We discussed how the feeling "angry" was okay (many are surprised by this). We talked about how the feeling is okay, it is how some people choose to react when they are angry that is not okay. The students practiced identifying different and conflicting feelings by working with partners. I would read a situation and they would tell their partner how they would feel. For example: "You just got invited to spend the night at a friend's house, but you realized you will miss family movie night." We did a brain break by listening to a fun story about Tony Chestnut and doing the silly Tony Chestnut song along with the singers and dancers from The Learning Station. I read How Are You Peeling? by: Saxton Freymann. The students then had time to color a "Feelings Tree." The students were asked to circle the figures connected with the most.