Blog 4- Social-Emotional Time

Egocentrism is a part of Early Childhood Development. Up to around 3-4 years old, children tend think they are the center of the universe, and that's because of their limited world view. They are an individual with wants, and needs, while others aren't. It's around 3 to 4 years old that we notice children developing an understanding of the emotional world, and feelings of others around them, and they're still exploring this idea when they get into Kindergarten. Kindergarten is a point where personal bonds develop with other children. Sharing, right/wrong, and consequences are a big part of their social-emotional development at this time.

On Fridays, PS 527 has club hours for the last period of the day. The schedule is a busy day for students, with KC having science, and activities in the library, and the music room. For our teacher Amy, and assistant teacher Chelsea, the day tends to be more quiet, and a little slower. During this time, if a Kindergarten student from another class had a rough day, and their behavior in class was causing problems, Amy would use a free period to work one on one with them.

Amy would first talk to them about what happened, while the rest of their class was doing an activity. They would use the reading area, and sit on the large pillows to get comfortable. Amy has pictures of monsters saved on her laptop, each of which has a different emotion attached. She asked, "Can you tell me which of these shows how you felt earlier today", using the monsters' visual cues to describe emotions that Kindergarten students might not be able to put into words. She would also ask if they can "tell her a time they felt like the monster's emotion"

They would talk about other ways to process emotions aside from lashing out, shutting down, or crying being the student was overwhelmed. In one instance Amy spoke to a child who felt excited in nervous way, and give him words lime "anxious" which gave him a way to say how he felt, making it easier for him to talk about his emotional state (I had thought words like anxious might be too advanced for Kindergartners, but I was wrong). She taught them different breathing techniques such as breathing from your nose and into your feet, and different stretches. Amy also gave a student some harder putty for him to squeeze, stretch, and release any stressors out on, before opening the sand table, and letting him play, and release his emotions through his hands.