Adapt this letter and send it home as you study Feelings with Sparkler's Us Time!
How are you feeling today? No really, HOW ARE YOU FEELING? Are you happy? Excited? Sad? Frustrated? Silly? Anxious? Joyful?
Our class is thinking and learning about FEELINGS this month, using a program called Us Time, which is created by Sparkler Learning (a nonprofit organization that our school/program works with). We will learn the names of many feelings, focusing on these six basic emotions:
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Silly
- Scared
- Calm
We will learn to identify these feelings (and any others that arise) in ourselves and others, and think deeply about some of our BIGGEST feelings: anger and sadness. We will also start to think about empathy — when we feel each other’s feelings!
Why are we focused on feelings? Research tells us that when young children learn to name and understand feelings, it lays a foundation that will help them develop in all areas, and helps them to do better in school and in life. When we focus on feelings now, your children will learn to express themselves clearly and confidently, resolve conflicts and solve problems that arise with peers, manage and regulate themselves when they feel a big feeling like anger or sadness without harming themselves or others, and much more.
At school, we emphasize the fact that ALL feelings are okay, even feelings that we sometimes view as negative, such as aggression, jealousy, or fear. All feelings are a natural part of the human experience. We never want a child to feel bad or wrong for feeling their feelings. Our goal is to help children learn what they can DO with their feelings: How can they express anger without hurting others? How can they let others know that they are feeling sad or lonely without feeling ashamed? How can you feel scared and still be a “big kid?” These are all questions that we hope to help children answer as we learn explore the feelings together.
There are many ways that YOU can help support your child’s learning at home! Below are some resources that you can use to help your child learn about feelings. Some of these will be familiar to your child as we are using them in our classroom. Others will be new, and will add to your child’s growth and learning.
As always, please feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns. We would love to hear from you.
