PBL: My Emotions! Day 1

Date: 2nd November 2022; Wednesday.
Facilitators: Auindrilla, Sonai, Sanmoyee, Drishti, and Sohini.
Participants: Arya, Hazzel, Meher, Nitara, Parth, Ruhani, Shannaya, Shivansh, Shivanshika, Taanush, Vaanya, Yuvaan (Bhopalka), and Yuvaan (Mehra).
Tags: sel, art, pbl

Welcome to the beginning of a new PBL unit at Arth Hours!
At Arth, we strive to create learning experiences that will help our children develop holistically, across all domains! A domain that is often overlooked in traditional learning systems is SEL, or socio-emotional learning. Socio-emotional learning equips children with skills like self-awareness, self-regulation, and communication which are important for their mature participation in society. It helps them to cope with stresses and big emotions, as well as grants them the empathy to understand people around them. To foster these essential skills, Arth Hours is beginning a project called ‘My Emotions’!
Read on to know how our Arthlings were introduced to the world of emotions and feelings!

PLANNING AND SETUP

The activity was divided into the following steps:

1. Making My Expression: Circles were drawn with black marker on pieces of cardboard to create face templates. Trays were prepared with glue, googly eyes, pebbles, plastic straws, chalk, wool, and felt-tip pens.

2. A Movie About Feelings: An educational video about emotions was downloaded to play on the projector.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Sonai Didi began the class by introducing the Arthlings to an Emotions Wheel! The wheel had an arrow that could be turned to point at any one of five emotions: happy, sad, scared, mad, and excited! The Arthlings took turns turning the arrow around to point at an emotion of their choice.

Making My Expression: After Work Time, the children gathered at their tables for an activity! Each Arthling was given a piece of brown card with a circle drawn on it. The educators explained that the Arthlings could use this outline to make a face with any expression they wanted!
First, the children made the eyes with googly eyes — then they picked stones to make noses! When it came to the mouth, the educators showed the children how the bendy part of a straw could be bent to create an expression! Most of the children chose to make happy faces, but Shivansh made an ‘ok ok’ face. Nitara decided to make one happy face, and one sad! The children finished their faces with hair made of wool, and details with chalk and marker pen.

A Movie About Feelings: The children gathered in front of the projector for Movie Time! They watched a movie about an Emotions Wheel, just like the one they had tried with Sonai Didi! Some of the emotions introduced by the wheel included Happiness, Sadness and Anger.

SKILLS USED

Socio-emotional skills
Communication
Visualization
Fine motor skills
Turn-taking

OUTCOME AND FUTURE

In this instalment of ‘My Emotions’, our little ones focused on getting to know some of the major emotions that we can feel! Identification is the first step towards learning to recognize and label feelings when they arise. In subsequent classes, Arthlings will spend time getting to know the big five emotions more intimately, as well as how to safely express them.
By representing their own facial expressions on paper, the Arthlings have become more aware of the outward manifestation of their emotions. They will study more about these outward effects as the unit continues!