Scared, surprised, curious, and sleepy feelings

Wild things - surprised Maggie and scared Sadie

Feelings. We're working on recognizing and getting friendly with them in ourselves. 

Using a set of emotion cards, I show the kids a face depicting a feeling. I ask, "Have you felt like this," then "what do you think this child is feeling?"

I read Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. I show pictures of kids who look scared and surprised. After we make Max crowns to be kings and queens of wild things.

Wearing crowns they practice making scared faces.

I ask Peyton, "Show me your scared face." She smiles. I say, "You look happy." This is what she looks like:

Then Peyton tries again. Here is her scared face:

I read Hello Ocean by Pam Munoz Ryan and Bear Flies High by Michael Rosen (we have some silly feelings with this one).

The seaside themes set a tone for exploring because I brought from Florida some beach sand, shells, seaweed and algae plants to practice curiosity. At first, Brennan is scared when she sees the bowl of sea things. Slowly, she sticks one hand in and finds a shell. All of a sudden she is curious:

Ansel dives curiously with two hands:

Two liter bottles connected with a "tornado tube" give us a chance to feel curious about vortexs. Jax is scared because he immediately sees a tornado vortex. Elijah tells him, "Don't worry. It's in the bottle." He discovers that it is a small whirlpool vortex, not a Texas wind vortex. Jilly keeps the vortex going so we can study it:

John Paul helps get the vortex going because Brennan is curious:

I ask if anyone has another feeling to share. Jax says, "Sleepy."