Joan Snow Pre-K Center
Parent Training and Support
SELF-AWARENESS
At-Home Activities
How to Teach Children to be Self-Aware?
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Self-Awareness is a set of skills that needs to be taught and there is no better way than teaching them through play.
In fact, children learn the best through play.
So, include play into your daily life will add more learning opportunities.
They will learn them without noticing it.
There are different ways we can teach through play, like below.
Use all of the different ways. They will learn by repetition and exposure in different ways.
CHILDREN LEARN THE BEST THROUGH PLAY.
SO, LET'S PLAY.
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VISUAL ARTS AT HOME
Self-Portrait:
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Objective: Recognize their own characteristics
This is a simple, but powerful activity to do at home.
Materials: paper, crayons
If you have a white or blackboard is good too, but do not forget to take a picture for monitoring progress.
You also can use a marble notebook and keep it for future monitoring.
Duration of the Activity: 5 - 10 mins
Instructions: I want you to draw yourself, your face, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hair.
You can accommodate this activity by giving a simple direct instruction like " Draw yourself" or go more in-depth and ask your child to draw his/her body or draw how they are feeling.
This activity can be done more than once. You will be able to see the progress in fine motor skills and self-perception.
Talk: Use this time to talk about how perfect beautiful your child is the way they are. Realize the self-esteem, self-confidence, resilience in continuing work. All of these are micro-skills of self-awareness.
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Popsicle Sticks
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Objective: Learn to recognize and name feelings
This is another simple way to give power to children. Provide a name for the feeling.
Materials: cardboard paper, crayons or markers, 4 popsicle sticks, glue stick
Duration of the Activity: varies. You can divide this activity into a few days or complete in one day
Instructions:
Preparation - Cut 8 circles of cardboard paper (any color)
You will be doing an art project with your child.
1) Invite him/her to have a fun time.
2) Show a happy face on your face, magazine, and/or book.
3) Ask him/her to draw a smiley face on one of the circles. You will do the same in another circle. After done write the word Happy in each one.
4) Repeat these steps for sad, angry, scared faces.
5) When done it is time to put it together: get the drawings in pairs, yours and your child's circle, and glue it together on a popsicle stick (one side will be yours, the other side will be his/hers)
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Accommodation:
If your child is not able to hold the crayon, let them try their best to encourage participation.
You can also create these feelings sticks with real pictures of your child.
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The purpose is to have these popsicle sticks available to use it whenever your child is experiencing a feeling that is difficult to express in words.
You can accommodate this activity by giving a simple direct instruction like " Draw a smiley face" or go more in-depth and ask your child to draw hair, earrings...
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This activity can be done more than once. You will be able to see the progress in fine motor skills and self-perception.
Talk:
Use this time to talk about that specific feeling.
Model giving an example for yourself like: "I feel happy when I eat pizza" or I feel happy when we play together".
Teach how he/she can recognize and name the feeling.
Talk about what she/he is feeling.
MINDFULNESS AT HOME
Mindfulness Breathing
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Objective: teach how in a quiet body and quiet place we can feel how our body is feeling.
Materials: mat or rug (optional), quiet place, and a soft meditation music
Duration of the Activity: 5-10 min
Instructions: 1 to 5-minute Mindfulness Exercises - This activity is good for children and parents.
Talk: Use this time to talk about how good is the feeling of staying quiet and how we can this way realize our feelings and thoughts.
Encourage your child to realize what he/she is hearing, smelling, feeling in their bodies... with curiosity and gratitude
MUSIC AND MOVEMENT AT HOME
Emotions Hokey Pokey
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Objective: to have a fun way to express feelings and learn how people react to different emotions
Materials: internet, space to dance
Duration of the activity: 10-15 min
Instructions: Click the link: Emotions Hokey Pockey. Follow the instructions of the song. Stand up and dance together.
Talk: Use this time to let your face show emotions in an exaggerated way to teach how they are expressed in the face and body. Have fun.
READ ALOUD AT HOME
Book: The Feelings Book by Todd Parr
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Objective: Reading and showing the pictures is another way to teach with visuals. It also is an opportunity to incorporate literacy into your daily life. This book is one of the best to introduce feelings. It is fun, short, and colorful.
Materials: internet
Duration of the activity: 10-15 mins
Instructions: Click on the image below to get access to the read-aloud.
Let your face show emotions in an exaggerated way when you are reading, to teach how to recognize feelings.
Have fun.
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Talk: Use this time to talk with your child about feelings. These are some ideas:
- Ask your child about how he/she is feeling.
- Play a guessing game on What do you think this character of the story is feeling?
- Ask "When do you feel happy?
- Ask " What makes you feel sad?
- Make predictions: "How do you think your brother feels when he gets hurt and he cries?"
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You can follow up with a drawing, painting, role-play... Be creative.
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Accommodations:
For children with communication limitations: Just talk and explain the concept. Make it short and sweet.
SEL GAMES AT HOME
If you want information on SEL for adults. Click here.
Feelings - Scavenger Hunt
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Objective: To develop the skills of recognizing, naming, and understanding feelings.
Materials: Pictures of people happy, sad, mad, scared (from magazines/books/cellphone pictures)
It is an activity to play outdoors
Duration of the activity: 10-15 mins
Instructions:
1) Walk outside with your child.
2) Say " Let's try to look around and find something that makes us happy" (object, song, person, animal...)
3) Show the picture of a happy person or happy people
3) Tell one thing and your child would have to say another thing. Take a few turns.
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Examples: You would say " I see an ice-cream truck. Ice-cream truck makes me happy" (make a big happy face)
Other examples: listening to a song, a beautiful flower, a kitty, or a puppy, bird...
4) Repeat the game for other feelings such as sad, mad, scared. If you want you can go ahead and look for excited, sleepy, bored...
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Accommodations:
For children with language limitations: Try to ask him/her to point out what makes him/her (feeling). Use this time to model and teach the feelings. Make it short and sweet.
Talk: Reflect on different things that make you and your child fell different feelings.
