June: 5 Ways to Celebrate Juneteenth With Your Family
Looking for ways to honor this holiday with your children? Here are five ways to celebrate Juneteenth together as a family.
https://www.pbs.org/parents/thrive/5-ways-to-celebrate-juneteenth
Now that Juneteenth is officially a federal holiday in the United States, it’s the perfect time to observe Juneteenth as a family. Juneteenth celebrates the freedom of the last group of enslaved people in the United States. It was announced to the people in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865 – more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
On “Sesame Street,” Juneteenth is a celebration of freedom, kindness and love. In this spirit, my family enjoys making crafts, attending local celebrations, and supporting small Black-owned businesses to honor this celebration of liberation.
Looking for ways to honor this holiday with your children? Here are five ways to celebrate Juneteenth together as a family.
1. Read about Juneteenth
Together, you can learn about Juneteenth and why it’s important to celebrate. Take a trip to your local library, order books online, or purchase from a local bookstore. There are so many books available that discuss Juneteenth or feature Black characters. I recommend Juneteenth for Mazie. My sons love that book! You can have a discussion about the book with your child or work together to jot down what you learned. (Looking for more books to celebrate Juneteenth and Black history? Check out this round-up.)
2. Have an outdoor cookout
Just like any holiday, Juneteenth is all about enjoying good food! My family likes to eat Caribbean food as well as southern classics. Make sure to incorporate red food and drinks like red velvet cake or strawberry soda. It represents sacrifice from our ancestors and is inspired by popular staples across the diaspora. Invite your child to the grocery store to go shopping for the cookout. They can count all the items on the list to purchase or weigh fruits or vegetables on the scale in the store. At home, let your child help with the decorations or gathering plates and utensils.
3. Create kid-friendly crafts
Have a craft party! You can make a craft stick Juneteenth Pan-African flag. Many people in the Black community celebrate Juneteenth with these colors because they represent pride and freedom. Have your child paint craft sticks red, black and green then glue them to a jumbo craft stick to create the flag. Your family can also make a Juneteenth cardboard flag. The colors are the same as the United States flag because former enslaved people and their descendants are also Americans.
4. Attend a local celebration
Attending a local Juneteenth event is a great opportunity to meet other families and build relationships with people from different backgrounds. Last year, I brought my family to a celebration in a nearby community because I wanted to support local Black-owned vendors. They had different food trucks, bounce houses and other fun activities. Check to see if your neighborhood is hosting an event. You can also visit your county or city website to see what they have planned.
5. Support a Black-owned business
Shopping small is a great way to support your community. Create a list with your child featuring three Black-owned businesses to visit for Juneteenth. If you’re in the Tampa Bay area, you can check out this directory. Here is a directory for businesses around America. Once you make a purchase, snap a picture at the shop or restaurant. Then create a digital scrapbook of your experience.
Juneteenth is a joyous celebration, but can be difficult to grasp, too. There is no perfect way to talk to children about race and racism. These topics are complex issues that can be hard for younger children to grasp.
In the"PBS KIDS Talk About: Race & Racism" special, PBS KIDS spoke with real families and had conversations about racial identity, anti-Black racism, and how it is important for all of us — children and parents alike — to actively work towards building a more equitable society. Check out this discussion guide.
Karimah is the creator and editor of the blog, Crafting a Fun Life. She shares fun art projects and family-friendly activities for parents and caregivers. She also shares fun holiday crafts with viewers of the local TV networks as well as a local parenting magazine. When she's not creating content or crafting, she enjoys playing online word games, spending quality time with her husband, two boys and dachshund, baking cookies, traveling, getting pampered at the nail salon and enjoying sweet treats.
May: Promoting Young Children’s Social and Emotional Health
Children who are socially and emotionally healthy tend to demonstrate, and continue to develop, several important behaviors and skills (adapted from McClellan & Katz 2001 and Bilmes 2012)
In a preschool classroom, some of the 3- and 4-year-old children smile, laugh, and giggle during free play; are curious about what happens next during story time; ask what and why questions while doing hands-on activities; and use words to express feelings and needs. In the toy area, Tom and Juan both reach for a small blue car. Tom says, “May I please have it first, then you have it later?” Juan replies, “You have it for five minutes and then I have it for five minutes.” Noticing this exchange, their teacher says, “Tom and Juan, you are talking about taking turns. What a great way to play together!”
Tom, Juan, and their classmates are a model of social and emotional health in preschool. Children who are socially and emotionally healthy tend to demonstrate, and continue to develop, several important behaviors and skills (adapted from McClellan & Katz 2001 and Bilmes 2012). They
Are usually in a positive mood
Listen and follow directions
Have close relationships with caregivers and peers
Care about friends and show interest in others
Recognize, label, and manage their own emotions
Understand others’ emotions and show empathy
Express wishes and preferences clearly
Gain access to ongoing play and group activities
Are able to play, negotiate, and compromise with others
Why social and emotional health matters
Children’s social and emotional health affects their overall development and learning. Research indicates that children who are mentally healthy tend to be happier, show greater motivation to learn, have a more positive attitude toward school, more eagerly participate in class activities, and demonstrate higher academic performance than less mentally healthy peers (Hyson 2004; Kostelnik et al. 2015). Children who exhibit social and emotional difficulties tend to have trouble following directions and participating in learning activities. Compared with healthier peers, they may be more likely to suffer rejection by classmates, have low self-esteem, do poorly in school, and be suspended (Hyson 2004; Kostelnik et al. 2015). Thus, children’s social and emotional health is just as important as their physical health, and affects their capacity to develop and potential to lead a fulfilling life.
Teachers can promote children’s social and emotional health in many ways, for example, by organizing a material-rich environment to stimulate social interactions among children. This article focuses on two of the most important practices: building trusting relationships and conducting intentional teaching.
Establish trusting relationships
Young children develop and learn in the context of relationships. A trusting and caring teacher–child relationship is essential for children’s optimum development (Raikes & Edwards 2009). Children who have trusting relationships with their teachers are, on average, more willing to ask questions, solve problems, try new tasks, and express their thinking than their peers without such relationships (O’Connor & McCartney 2007). In her work supervising student teachers, Ho (the first author) often sees children developing positive social and emotional health as a result of close relationships with their teachers. For example, children learn to use words to express their feelings—such as Amy saying to Emily, “I am sad when you use hurting words!”—and to show empathy—as when Arjun gently pats Brian’s head and says, “Are you okay? Do you want to hold the teddy bear?”
Children benefit socially, emotionally, and academically when teachers intentionally create close, trusting relationships (Palermo et al. 2007). But gaining the trust of every child is not as simple as being nice and engaging. How can teachers create trusting relationships with all of the children? Consistently offering warmth, affection, respect, and caring is essential.
Showing warmth and affection consistently
Warmth and affection—even on bad days and when children are misbehaving—are critical to children’s well-being in early education settings (Ostrosky & Jung 2005). They contribute to developing secure relationships between children and adults, provide models of gentle behavior, and are linked with children’s ability to interact positively with peers (Twardosz 2005). The preschoolers we observed used gentle hands and kind words and positively interacted with peers most of the time. Their social and emotional well-being was nourished by their teachers’ warmth and affection, which is shown in the following examples:
Ms. Johnson displays a pleasant facial expression throughout the day. She smiles when greeting children in the morning, says goodbye in the afternoon, and acknowledges children’s appropriate behaviors.
Mr. Logan uses the appropriate tone of voice at all times. His speech is at normal pitch and volume; his tone is relaxed and soft. Even when he has to redirect a child’s behavior, he remains calm and warm to convey that his concern is with the behavior—not the child.
Ms. Aragon gives appropriate touches when necessary, such as a pat on the back, a handshake, hugs, and brief tickles.
Ms. Lizama moves physically close to the children and bends or crouches to be at the children’s eye level while talking to them.
Mr. Sharma often uses loving comments to show he cares: “I am so happy to see you this morning!,” “I missed you yesterday,” “I love seeing your smile!” And he is careful to make such comments to all of the children in his classroom.
Respecting and caring about every child
Showing respect is a key way to connect with children and strengthen positive relationships. It helps children feel more confident and competent to explore and learn (Dombro, Jablon, & Stetson 2011). Ms. Carnes establishes and maintains close personal bonds with every child in her classroom by consistently acting in respectful and caring ways. Specifically, she
Listens with full attention and restates what children say (often also seizing the opportunity to expose the children to new vocabulary). Jason, a 4-year-old, says, “Look, I made a truck with lots of Legos!” Ms. Carnes replies, “Oh, I see, Jason. You built a truck with dozens of Legos.” Jason adds, “I use this truck to deliver apples and bananas to the grocery store.” Ms. Carnes responds, “Using a truck to deliver nutritious fruits to the grocery store is helpful.” Listening to children attentively and reflectively enhances their self-worth and confidence. When teachers actively listen to children, they convey that they care about what the children have to say, and the children are more likely to share their thoughts, ideas, feelings, and stories.
Accepts and reflects children’s feelings. Frowning, Jasper says to the teacher, “Michael has all the big blocks!” Ms. Carnes responds, “Jasper, you seem upset that there are no more large blocks to build with right now. It is difficult to wait!” Amy says with enthusiasm, “We are about to go outside!” Ms. Carnes answers, “The sparkles in your eyes tell me you can hardly wait to go outside. You are excited.” When they accept and reflect children’s feelings, teachers exhibit sensitivity and caring in a way children understand. Teachers’ acknowledgments make children feel heard and accepted (Duffy 2008). As a result, children feel safe to express their emotions—and receive support in identifying, labeling, and better understanding their emotions.
Spends private, quality time with individual children through one-on-one activities, such as story reading and game playing. Emily is sad when her mom leaves. Ms. Carnes reads her a book in a cozy corner with soft pillows and stuffed animals. Afterward, Emily is ready to explore and play in the classroom. Judy complains that no one wants to play with her at the tactile table. Ms. Carnes sits at the table and plays with Judy until another child joins the play. In addition, Ms. Carnes spends quality time with individual children by putting aside other work, moving to the child’s level, and conversing openly with the child. Ms. Carnes keeps track to ensure that she speaks with each child regularly, which deepens their relationship and builds trust (Gartrell 2007). Ms. Carnes finds time for these conversations throughout the day, especially during greeting, free play, snack, lunch, and departure time.
Teach social and emotional skills intentionally
Helping children develop social and emotional skills is the heart and soul of any good program for young children (Gordon & Browne 2014). Teachers (and all caregivers) play key roles in helping children develop social and emotional competence (Kostelnik et al. 2015). Teachers can intentionally support children’s social and emotional health by using children’s books, planning activities, coaching on the spot, giving effective praise, modeling appropriate behaviors, and providing cues.
Warmth and affection—even on bad days and when children are misbehaving—are critical to children’s well-being in early education.
Using children’s books
Reading and discussing children’s books is an excellent way to invite children to identify the characters’ emotions and relate the characters’ experiences to their own (Roberts & Crawford 2008). To introduce a new social or emotional skill, Ms. Coz carefully chooses high-quality books to read aloud at circle time. Sometimes she chooses books related to children’s recent social and emotional behaviors in the classroom. When she sees some of the children having trouble sharing toys, she reads aloud The Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister. When she finds a child crying because her friend hit her, Ms. Coz reads aloud Hands Are Not for Hitting, by Elizabeth Verdick. (See “Children’s Books for Teaching Social and Emotional Skills," for more titles to consider.)
To connect the characters and situations in the book with the children’s experiences, Ms. Coz plans to read the book at least twice and also add it to the classroom library. During the second reading, she asks meaningful questions: “What do you think the characters are feeling?,” “How would you solve the problem?,” “Can you use words from the story to explain how you feel when you . . .?,” “What could we do differently if this happens in our classroom?” These open-ended questions enable children to talk about their own experiences, learn new vocabulary words, and practice social and emotional skills.
Planning activities
To extend and apply what children learn from reading stories, Ms. Coz plans follow-up activities, such as hands-on crafts, games, and songs. She often uses Book Nook guides, created by the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/resources/strategies.html#booknook). These guides help her embed social and emotional development activities into daily routines, including read-alouds. (See “Activities for Supporting Children’s Social and Emotional Learning” for some ideas adapted from Book Nook guides.)
Coaching on the spot
When they coach children on the spot, teachers help children realize what they are doing, understand how their actions affect others, and choose positive alternatives (Riley et al. 2008). For example, when Ryan and Ethan build a firehouse in the block area, Ethan grabs the fire truck from Ryan, and Ryan cries. Ms. Coz crouches down at Ethan’s level to look into his eyes; calmly and warmly, she says, “Ryan was still using the truck. When you took it away from him, he got upset. What could you do to make Ryan feel better?” After Ethan says he is sorry and gives back the fire truck, Ms. Coz says, “Next time if you want to play with the toy Ryan is using, could you ask if he will share?” Ms. Coz follows up by observing Ethan and providing immediate positive feedback on his desirable behavior.
Giving effective praise
Meaningful feedback pertinent to the task at hand in the form of effective praise is a powerful strategy for fostering children’s social and emotional development (Kostelnik et al. 2015). To make praise effective, teachers describe specifically what they see—without generalizing, evaluating, or making comparisons. When Emily finishes her drawing, Ms. Coz notices her picture and her smile. Ms. Coz says, “I see a blue sky, a yellow sun, and green grass around the big brown tree. This picture makes you happy, doesn’t it?” This praise is effective because Ms. Coz offers detailed, positive comments immediately after desirable behavior occurs. Noticing Ethan asking Ryan politely for a policewoman figure, Ms. Coz says, “Ethan, you used the magic words May I please? to ask for that policewoman while you and Ryan were building the firehouse together. Great job!” Smiling, Ethan responds, “We are friends and we can share things.”
Modeling appropriate behavior
Children learn by observing other people, getting ideas about how new behaviors are formed, and using the ideas to guide their actions (Bandura 1977). Many studies have found that modeling—or demonstrating appropriate behaviors—teaches and enhances children’s social and emotional skills (Katz & McClellan 1997; Hyson 2004). This research-based conclusion is evidenced in Ms. Coz’s and Ms. Carnes’s classes. Both teachers implement several noninvasive strategies—including modeling—that their center administrators created to support teachers in promoting socially and emotionally healthy behaviors. They display the strategies on the classroom wall and put them into action by
Moving closer to children, when needed, as a nonverbal cue to rethink behaviors
Modeling appropriate warm and respectful behavior throughout the day and at specific moments when a gentle reminder is needed
Using nonverbal gestures and contact (e.g., nodding the head, giving thumbs-up signs, and touching children gently on the shoulder) to send messages
Employing simple language (e.g., “Walking feet, please” and “Use gentle hands”) to set expectations and give reminders
Acknowledging a kind act on the spot or praising a group effort for a job well done
Placing a hand—gently—on a child’s hand to redirect attention and behavior
When children see teachers demonstrate these noninvasive strategies, they often smile, use their gentle hands, say please and thank you, give hugs and high fives, and use words to express their feelings.
In addition to being role models, the teachers use the children’s appropriate behaviors to model social and emotional skills. They carefully observe and record details about how children apply the target skills, and they share their observations with the children through puppet shows during circle time. Using puppets to demonstrate children’s appropriate behaviors helps children learn social and emotional skills meaningfully.
Providing cues
Providing cues to engage children in appropriate social behavior has been shown over time to improve their social behavior with their peers (Bovey & Strain 2005). Ms. Coz and Ms. Carnes often provide verbal cues to help some children participate in activities. Before playtime, for example, Ms. Carnes asks, “James, who are you going to ask to play with you at center time?” During playtime, she suggests, “Saanvi, can you ask Anna to build an airplane with you?” To teach sharing and turn taking, Ms. Coz asks Steven, who has been waiting to play with a toy dolphin for a while, “What magic words could you use to have a turn with the dolphin John is using?”
Both Ms. Coz and Ms. Carnes prominently display visual cues in their classrooms to assist children’s social and emotional interactions. For example, they provide teacher-made hand puppets to guide children to use quiet voices, helping hands, and walking feet. To help children calm down, they also created a “push wall”—a designated spot on the wall to push anger out—and use puppets to demonstrate the strategy. These puppets, demonstrations, and explanations are essential for clarifying and modeling appropriate behavior—and the visual cues are essential for reminding the children to practice what they have learned. Long-term visual cues function like a third teacher in the sense that children use the cues to remind one another of solutions and appropriate actions.
Conclusion
Teachers and caregivers promote children’s social and emotional health by establishing trusting relationships, created when teachers express warmth, affection, and respect. Teachers can intentionally teach and enhance these skills using evidence-based strategies to teach, model, and reinforce positive behaviors. As evidenced in the preschool classrooms we observed, teachers who prioritize developing children’s social and emotional health are richly rewarded with happy, engaged children who learn to avoid and resolve conflicts, share and take turns, and express their emotions in productive ways.
May: Emotional Regulation Literacy
the apps in this collection can help kids (autism) to gauge and manage their emotions, reduce anxiety, and deal with everyday life.
Children and teens with autism or Aspergers often struggle with understanding their emotions and adapting to changes in schedules or situations around them. The apps in this collection can help kids to gauge and manage their emotions, reduce anxiety, and deal with everyday life. For more quality apps, browse our full library of literacy apps.
Many of the reviews we link to are from Common Sense Education, a trusted resource for learning about apps and other edtech tools.
Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame
Grade level: Pre-K, K, 1st
Skill: Emotional Regulation
Kids and a blue monster together tackle everyday frustrations — like struggling to tie shoes, dealing with separation anxiety, taking turns, and going to bed — and learn how to deal with them. Students must work through one problem before unlocking the next. Animated video clips show the blue monster's problem, then kids tap his belly to help him breathe deeply and calm down. When the monster is calm, students tap thought bubbles, which produces three possible strategies. Students get to choose which strategy the monster will try and then see him do it in another animated video clip. The technique of breathing, thinking, and doing is reinforced throughout.
Review from Common Sense Education
Calm
Grade level: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 4th and above
Skill: Emotional Regulation
Calm opens by instructing kids to take a deep breath before landing on the home screen. This home screen can be customized, and kids can choose from a range of more than 30 nature scenes and sounds to fit their preference. From this point, kids can either complete a daily meditation that's provided, choose a sleep meditation, or practice deep breathing. For teachers who have young students, Calm's Sleep Stories might be useful for rest time. Additionally, when teaching coping and calming skills, teachers could use this app to show students how to focus on slowing down their fight-or-flight responses by using the Breathe function.
Review from Common Sense Education
Daniel Tiger's Grr-ific Feelings
Price: $2.99
Grade level: Pre-K, K
Skill: Emotional Regulation
Device: Android, iPad
An early-education social and emotional learning app for preschoolers and kindergarten-age kids. It can support teacher-led, general social and emotional skills lessons, or serve as a supplement to specific discussions about conflict resolution, anger management, or expressing and controlling emotions.
Review from Common Sense Education
Mind Yeti
Grade level: K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 4th and above
Skill: Emotional Regulation
Min Yeti provides mindfulness instruction and meditative scripts for a variety of moods and needs. Fun visuals and characters help kids pick relaxation scripts to fit their needs. Teachers can begin by letting students watch the instructional video that introduces the Mind Yeti and the group of Hububbles, which are thoughts that can cloud the mind. After a few practice sessions, assign a weekly Mind Yeti leader who can take the app with a small group to a corner of the room to practice leadership and communication skills. Ask students to check in with a debriefing method after the session to encourage conversations about social and emotional well-being.
Review from Common Sense Education
Mood Meter
Price: $0.99
Grade level: 4th and above
Skill: Emotional Regulation
Device: Android, iPad, iPhone
A tool that encourages kids to reflect on and manage emotions. Users plot their moods on a color-coded chart filled with words describing feelings. After browsing the plot and selecting a mood, users describe, in 150 characters, what caused that mood. Next, they choose Stay Here, which records the feedback and ends the exercise, or Shift Here to browse strategies that might help shift their mood.
Review from Common Sense Education
Stop, Breathe & Think
Price: $9.99
Grade level: 3rd, 4th, 4th and above
Skill: Emotional Regulation
Device: Android, iPad, iPhone
Offers brief meditations to address a range of emotional states. Kids click Check In to answer a few questions about their current state of mind -- how they're feeling both mentally and physically, on a scale from "great" to "rough." Kids can then select up to five emotions from more than 80, and the app presents a curated list of meditations especially suited to the emotions selected. Upon completing meditation sessions, kids can earn stickers for their achievements (like completing multiple meditations) and track their own user trends.
Review from Common Sense Education
The Zones of Regulation
Price: $5.99
Grade level: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 4th and above
Skill: Emotional Regulation
Device: Android, iPad, iPhone
Helps teach kids who struggle socially learn how to identify emotions and use strategies to deal with them. The app presents users with a variety of situations and circumstances; this practice helps them understand and define their feelings, consider behavior options, and develop strategies to maintain appropriate behavior. After selecting an avatar and identifying hot spots on the path, kids explore the four zones of emotions. As they play and answer questions, they'll earn tokens to exchange for rewards.
Review from Common Sense Education
Touch and Learn Emotions
Grade level: K, 1st, 2nd
Skill: Emotional Regulation
Device: iPad, iPhone
Helps kids identify and name emotions, facial expressions, and body language. Four images of real people appear on the screen and a voice says an emotion such as "frustrated." Kids tap on the image of the person they think looks frustrated.
Review from Common Sense Education
Wisdom: Kingdom of Anger
Grade level: K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd
Skill: Emotional Regulation
Device: Android, iPad, iPhone
Helps kids recognize anger cues in themselves and others. Consider using it as an activity for whole-group instruction with your younger students (such as kindergarten or first grade) or use as a station in a small group during social studies or social skills time too. Small groups could work together to select and play through mini-games. Consider incorporating the game into purposeful social and emotional learning time after a morning meeting or for soft landings in the morning. Place the device and app in a calming corner for students to engage with when they need a break.
May: Support Emotional Literacy With the Healing Hand Activity
Not all challenges can be solved, but an activity that helps students identify their support systems and coping strategies can boost their well-being.
Not all challenges can be solved, but an activity that helps students identify their support systems and coping strategies can boost their well-being.
By Melissa Tamburrino, Dallys Clark
February 13, 2023
How can I help my students thrive and reach their fullest potential? Can I help my students improve their mental health and behavior? These and related inquiries fill our minds as educators dedicated to supporting our students. Yet the answers are often elusive, especially in recent years, when critical factors such as trauma, inequity, and the challenges of virtual or hybrid teaching have filled our learning environments.
The effects of the pandemic have taken a toll on students and teachers alike, with anxiety, stress, and fear imbuing our personal lives and school settings. We wonder, what can we do about it? Are teachers really equipped to recognize students’ feelings and cope with unprecedented situations?
Across the United States, school districts are incorporating mindfulness and social and emotional learning (SEL) programming into their curricula. These programs focus on students’ mental well-being, but not all schools have access to them, and not all programs teach equitable strategies.
So what can elementary teachers do if their district does not incorporate these programs? For starters, infusing children’s literature that centers a breadth of attitudes, feelings, and mindsets into the curriculum can provide support when students are facing troubling situations within and outside of the classroom. After reading and discussing literature that facilitates considerations of emotion, children can then apply what they have learned by doing extension activities that support self-awareness.
Here’s one example that we have utilized with kindergarten and first-grade classes—and that could apply to learners through fourth grade.
USING LITERATURE TO FACILITATE DISCUSSIONS ABOUT EMOTION
Adam Lehrhaupt’s children’s book There Was a Hole is a resource that can help students understand their feelings. The text focuses on self-awareness, self-management, and responsible decision-making—three tenets of social and emotional learning as defined by CASEL.
The main character, Lily, has a hole in her chest that cannot be filled. No amount of cake, museum visits, or soccer can fix the pain she feels. Lily meets a friend who teaches her how to make patches. The patches may not completely fix the pain, but they do make Lily feel better. They are metaphorical displays of healing; the act of crafting serves as a form of self-regulation, and the completed patches facilitate opportunities to make social connections and discover joy in shared areas of interest.
Lily’s journey positions students and teachers to have class discussions about difficult emotions, the power of friendship during challenging times, and constructive coping skills that can “patch” if not completely fix pain.
To further build upon students’ emotional literacy, teachers can follow reading and discussion with an extension activity, the Healing Hand, which focuses on finding the good, even in a bad situation.
THE HEALING HAND: AN EXTENSION ACTIVITY
For this activity, students can either trace their hand or use a hand template. In the middle of the outlined hand, invite students to write stressors and challenges (for younger students, or as a way to differentiate learning, students may dictate to a trusted adult—a teacher or school counselor—who acts as a scribe). Let them know they will have full control over who sees their completed diagrams.
On each finger, ask students to brainstorm ways to cope with their identified challenges, creating a visual representation of adaptation. Not every challenge, for example, has a solution, so the goal here is not to imply an easy fix in the face of stress but to encourage students to become aware of possible support systems and to foster a sense of agency amid trying circumstances.
To further reinforce the sense of a support system, you can welcome guidance counselors or other school support staff into the classroom to talk about coping strategies and resources that exist at school and to offer support to students whose challenges may raise concern. This is a great way to normalize help-seeking, familiarize students with caring adults in the building, and support students’ sharing.
After students have completed their diagrams, you can scaffold optional sharing by inviting students to choose whether they keep their hand diagrams to themselves, share confidentially with you or a counselor, or share with trusted peer(s) or the larger group.
Doing so facilitates reflection, and students are able to connect on a deeper level with their peers while developing their empathy skills. They can discuss similarities between their challenges and support systems. And those comfortable with having a wider audience might post their Healing Hands in a designated area, such as a calm-down corner, for visual reminders about identified coping strategies.
When displaying the hands, consider arranging them in a way that they are interconnected. This symbolizes the importance of relationships and support systems and shows students that they are never alone. If students are uncomfortable with their hands being displayed publicly, consider laminating them to keep in a desk, folder, or safe space so that the students can reflect privately during a challenging time.
Adam Lehrhaupt’s children’s book There Was a Hole is a resource that can help students understand their feelings. The text focuses on self-awareness, self-management, and responsible decision-making—three tenets of social and emotional learning as defined by CASEL.
The main character, Lily, has a hole in her chest that cannot be filled. No amount of cake, museum visits, or soccer can fix the pain she feels. Lily meets a friend who teaches her how to make patches. The patches may not completely fix the pain, but they do make Lily feel better. They are metaphorical displays of healing; the act of crafting serves as a form of self-regulation, and the completed patches facilitate opportunities to make social connections and discover joy in shared areas of interest.
Lily’s journey positions students and teachers to have class discussions about difficult emotions, the power of friendship during challenging times, and constructive coping skills that can “patch” if not completely fix pain.
To further build upon students’ emotional literacy, teachers can follow reading and discussion with an extension activity, the Healing Hand, which focuses on finding the good, even in a bad situation.
THE HEALING HAND: AN EXTENSION ACTIVITY
For this activity, students can either trace their hand or use a hand template. In the middle of the outlined hand, invite students to write stressors and challenges (for younger students, or as a way to differentiate learning, students may dictate to a trusted adult—a teacher or school counselor—who acts as a scribe). Let them know they will have full control over who sees their completed diagrams.
On each finger, ask students to brainstorm ways to cope with their identified challenges, creating a visual representation of adaptation. Not every challenge, for example, has a solution, so the goal here is not to imply an easy fix in the face of stress but to encourage students to become aware of possible support systems and to foster a sense of agency amid trying circumstances.
To further reinforce the sense of a support system, you can welcome guidance counselors or other school support staff into the classroom to talk about coping strategies and resources that exist at school and to offer support to students whose challenges may raise concern. This is a great way to normalize help-seeking, familiarize students with caring adults in the building, and support students’ sharing.
After students have completed their diagrams, you can scaffold optional sharing by inviting students to choose whether they keep their hand diagrams to themselves, share confidentially with you or a counselor, or share with trusted peer(s) or the larger group.
Doing so facilitates reflection, and students are able to connect on a deeper level with their peers while developing their empathy skills. They can discuss similarities between their challenges and support systems. And those comfortable with having a wider audience might post their Healing Hands in a designated area, such as a calm-down corner, for visual reminders about identified coping strategies.
When displaying the hands, consider arranging them in a way that they are interconnected. This symbolizes the importance of relationships and support systems and shows students that they are never alone. If students are uncomfortable with their hands being displayed publicly, consider laminating them to keep in a desk, folder, or safe space so that the students can reflect privately during a challenging time.
BRIDGING CONNECTION AND BOOSTING SENSE OF FUTURE
Students are facing many challenges—anxiety, worry, and fear among them—but they don’t always express these feelings verbally. The Healing Hand activity offers a way for students to share their worries and fears while identifying the support systems available in their lives.
Healing Hands can serve as visual reminders that there are always resources available in times of challenge. They can serve as a bridge for students who might benefit from building relationships with school counselors or other support staff. And by incorporating SEL activities into the classroom, teachers can help students learn how to build confidence and resilience for their future.