A Bag Full Of Emotions! Anyone?

The Calves, our 3 year olds class, and I started our story time one day in August. Little Engine was the story we picked and all of us sat down in a circle to listen. For our story time, we have a wall full of emotions where children can identify and relate to what the character is feeling as the story progresses. 

Throughout the Little Engine story, children constantly ran over to relate to the emotions. Over the course of the story, children constantly connected with the Little Engine that was stuck in the middle of nowhere as it couldn’t go up the mountain to deliver the toys it had promised to the children. Here’s how the discussion went:

H (points to the thinking face): It is thinking about going, is stuck. 
(She was talking about how to get the train unstuck, from the train’s perspective)
Av: It’s scared and shocked. Another big train is coming on the track. 
S: It’s happy ma’am. 
F: Why is it happy?
S: Because it’s going to give toys to children. 
Aa: Crying, the big engine is not helping it. 
K: Sad. Because the storm is coming. 

Later, we wrapped up the story with all of them inspired to get themselves unstuck with ‘I think I can’ motto of the Little Engine, with lots of energy and enthusiasm on moving on with their activities. 

Even for the same situation children are capable of identifying a plethora of emotions when given the vocabulary for it. It begins to truly help develop their emotional quotient and is the base for understanding one’s and others emotions in different contexts. Stories can act as positive, powerful emotional anchors and equip children to deal with situations in life later on with authenticity.

Contributed by Sruthy Krishna, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.