For my upcoming Maternity Leave (baby no.2 due in September!) I decided to give myself another project to work on – putting some of the wellbeing resources I have found most useful onto a teachers pay teachers (TpT) account!
My account can be found on this link. I have also added it onto my About Me page.
The first resource I have shared is all about identifying emotions. This was the first resource that came to mind for a few reasons:
- Identifying emotions is the first step in understanding them which is a hugely important aspect of emotional regulation.
- Giving our feelings and emotions a name allows us to begin seeing them as an entity in themselves (i.e. we are feeling the emotion but we are NOT the emotion). This helps to prevent emotions from hi-jacking our thoughts and behaviour and ultimately gives us a better understanding of ourselves.
- I don’t think we can overdo talking about emotions. It should begin as early as possible; with children in the early years of primary being able to name many of the basic emotions they feel. We want to work towards identifying emotions as we feel them, allowing a certain distance from the feeling itself and eventually being able to identify strategies to manage it if needed.
I love the work of Susan David on Emotional Agility and Brené Brown on, well everything, but especially her work on mapping emotions in Atlas of the Heart (fun fact: my sister read an expert from Rising Strong – another of Brené’s works – at my wedding!)
My next goal is to bring some of their teaching into more advanced lessons aimed at pupils in the upper primary and beyond. So watch this space!
