Hunan Daily New Hunan Client Correspondent Qu Zeqing Qin Lanfang
There is a two-story small attic in the corner of the hall on the first floor of the kindergarten in Wulingyuan District, Zhangjiajie City, which is a place that children especially like to go.
There are picture books, whispers in tree hollows, and an intimate space that children love – huts made out of small tents. This is a small world of emotional catharsis specially created for children in the kindergarten.
In the process of children's growth, the preschool period of 3-6 years old is a critical period for rapid emotional development, because children's own emotional regulation ability is still very weak, prone to emotional instability, and even emotional problems. Therefore, grasping the critical period to cultivate children's positive emotions plays an irreplaceable role in children's lifelong development. The "Guidelines for the Xi and Development of Children Aged 3-6" points out: "Early childhood is a period of extremely rapid physical and functional development of children, and it is also an important stage for the formation of a sense of security and optimism. In order to effectively promote the healthy development of children's physical and mental health, it is necessary to create a warm interpersonal environment, so that children can fully feel family affection and love, and form positive and stable emotions. "The hallmarks of children's mental health are positive emotions, moderate emotional responses, and stable and happy emotions are important conditions for young children to maintain physical and mental health and behavioral adaptation, while the long-term accumulation of negative emotions such as anger, fear, and sadness may lead to pathologies.
Li Xiaofang, director of the kindergarten in Wulingyuan District, introduced that based on the above, the kindergarten decided to open a social and emotional training course at the beginning of 2023, starting from three aspects: cognitive emotion, acceptance of emotion, and regulation of emotion, to cultivate children's emotional regulation ability.
Cognitive emotions: know how to recognize and understand your own emotions
In order for children to learn to regulate their emotions, they must first know how to recognize and understand their emotions.
Carry out themed educational activities such as "Emotional Bubbles" and "My Emotional Little Monster" to guide children to understand emotions such as anger, sadness, happiness, and calmness, and combine children's life experience to allow children to observe different facial expressions and body postures through role games and situation creation, and ask children to say what kind of facial expression this is, and in what situations they and others will appear such emotional performances, so as to further perceive various emotional states.
Use the mood table and mood forecast wall to express emotions. After the children have a preliminary understanding of the basic emotional state, the teacher and the children decide to distinguish various emotions by color, such as yellow for happiness, red for anger, blue for sadness, and green for calm.
Make a "mood forecast wall" to guide children to choose cards and put them into the corresponding color "bottle" according to their emotional conditions after coming to the kindergarten every morning, and if there is a change in mood later, you can also change the position of the mood card, so that teachers can pay attention to the children's emotional and emotional conditions in time, so as to guide them in a targeted manner.
Accept emotions: Use different ways to resolve negative emotions
"For my own sake I must forgive something, for a man cannot get up from night to plant thorns in the garden of his soul. "As a teacher, let your child know that everyone has negative emotions, but learn to actively think of ways to resolve them.
Honghong, a child in Secondary 2, is usually lively and cheerful, but once when he was queuing up to do exercises, he hid in the corner and just didn't leave. After the teacher found out, he first talked to understand the reason for his unhappiness, asked him to express his feelings, and gave him a hug in time, and then took him to the emotional hut to give him a chance to be alone. The teacher left to observe secretly, and found that he was holding the doll and talking for a while, and then slowly calmed down, played games with the doll, and told his own whispers to the doll, and played games with the doll. After he calmed down, the teacher told him the story "It's okay if it's not the first", which helped him learn to correctly view and regulate negative emotions, fight adversity and setbacks, and gather confidence and strength to grow.
On the occasion of Children's Day, the kindergarten also rehearsed the fairy tale drama "My Emotional Little Monster", a group of elves dressed in yellow, red, blue and green colors performed on the stage, and the young audience watched with relish.
On the basis of children's full understanding of their own emotions, teachers guide children to accept various emotions with the help of children's favorite picture books, fairy tales, etc., so that children can further realize that there is no right or wrong emotion, they live in their own bodies, and when they encounter unhappy things, they can face unpleasant things in their own unique way and can look at them optimistically.
Regulate emotions: sow the seeds of happiness for your child
After the children know various emotions, the teacher guides the children to put the mood cards into the corresponding color "bottle" according to their own emotions every morning. If you find a child's card in the red or blue area, explore ways to regulate emotions with the child, and the teacher and the child discuss it together.
Teacher: What do you want to do most when you're in a bad mood?
Yuzu: I like to sing and draw.
Lifelike: Whisper to ragdolls or tree holes.
Chenchen: I still like to stay alone in a tent or eat something delicious.
Yue Yue: I can hammer sandbags and read books.
Xianxian: I like to listen to the teacher's stories.
Momo: I like to cry, and I will be happy when I cry for a while.
……
After nearly a year of exploration, the kindergarten has summarized some ways to help children regulate their emotions:
Conduct counseling at the right time. Pay more attention to the children who put the cards in the red or blue areas, and talk to them to channel their bad emotions in a timely manner.
Organize the set of emotion regulation games, set up regulation game sections in regional and independent play activities, and help children regulate their emotions through games such as emotional matching, grimacing, face-changing villain, and face turntable.
Set up an "emotional catharsis area" in the lobby on the first floor, where there are picture books such as "Fei Fei is Angry", "My Emotional Little Monster" and "Sometimes I'm Afraid", through reading picture books, you can better understand emotions and recognize emotions; There is a "tree hole whisper", you can write (draw) your own whisper and put it into the tree hole, and share your little secrets with the tree hole; It's an intimate space that children love – a small tent where they can hold their beloved dolls and talk when they're in a bad mood...... When the class teacher finds that some children cannot calm down their emotions, they will take the children to the emotional catharsis area, and let the children try to regulate their emotional feelings in various ways, and channel and vent negative emotions in a way that does not harm themselves or others.
Set up life courses, set up planting corners for children and their peers to plant and observe, pick fruits, taste the results, and experience teamwork and enjoy the fun of harvesting; Set up a life workshop, where children make and taste food by themselves and enjoy the joy of success; Raising kittens, rabbits and other small animals, so that children can really feel the growth and changes of animals in the process of taking care of small animals, and feel the relationship between their own behavior and animal growth, so as to truly understand life, respect life, and cherish life.
The exploration of social-emotional development programs continues. Li Xiaofang introduced, let children learn to recognize, accept, regulate their emotions, healthy and happy growth is a very meaningful thing, the kindergarten will always adhere to this work, let each child grow towards the sun, for the children to sow the seeds of a lifetime of happiness.