Building homes and social emotional skills in Kindergarten
Social-emotional learning (SEL) is the process of developing skills that help people manage their emotions, build relationships, and make responsible decisions, skills that can help people succeed in school, work, and life.
Advent, Kindergarten teachers Jaz Nettrour, and Rose Vega use SEL friends Sloth, Otter, and Hammerhead to reinforce social/emotional learning. These animals have been helping students learn how to work through new routines, grow our heart families, and how to work through big feelings and conflicts.
Recently, students collaborated to design and build a series of "houses" where the classroom's social/emotional learning animals can play together. In addition to working on fine motor skills, the activity challenged kids to think about what they could create to allow the animals to be together, since one lives on land, one on water, and one can be in both. They were very creative with their ideas for ways to allow them to play together!
One student built a pool area where Hammerhead could be in the water but still play ball with the other two. Another created a diving suit so the other two animals could dive deep underwater.
Students also discussed how they felt when different problems arose, and talked about the kinds of things they could say with their words to help resolve conflicts and get past the initial feeling of anger or hurt that often happens at the start of a disagreement. Many students shared examples of “real life” arguments during this discussion — it was so wonderful to see how the students received their classmate’s stories with empathy and support!
