Emotions and Empathy

Our relationships with others are very important.  They have the ability to effect our days and our moods.  At the start of the year we looked at our power on the playground and how what we does has a direct impact on others.  We are revisiting and exploring the ideas of emotions and having empathy towards others and have been practising the skill of recognising emotions in others and thinking about what we can do for others.

We have been reading picture books that illustrate different emotions and empathy.  The first is about making friends and recognising people's strengths and the second is about recognising that we are all different and if we look at each other with love, we will always see the wonder in each other.  Both stories do a wonderful job of displaying the type of empathy we are talking about having.  

We have also been writing our own little books called, "I Have Empathy."

In these books we look at basic emotions in others and what we can do to make a difference. 

In our investigation into and exploration of emotions we have been doing a bit of drama and role-play.  Stepping into our Empathy Boots, each child acted out an emotion and it was the rest of our jobs to figure out that emotion. 

This exercise allows us to recognise facial expressions and body language and link them to emotions.  It's important for us to be able to identify how we and others are feeling and then to know what we can do about it.

Another way we have been exploring emotions, empathy and character strengths is by looking at what we feel are our strengths.  We had 8 strengths to choose from and had to each draw 2 mini self portraits and place our names on the top 2 that we felt were most like us.  we were choosing from I try new things, I help others, I stand up for myself, I have good manners, I am loving, I look after others, I don't give up and I am patient.  

 We placed our names and then we discussed what we noticed about our class.

Many people identified themselves as being loving, trying new things and not giving up.  With these strengths I have no doubt that our class will continue to take notice of each other's emotions and find new and loving ways to look after each other and show empathy.