Managing Emotions In the Classoom

In case you haven’t realized it yet, human emotions are an extremely complex entity! We express emotions when we are doing our best, and when we are doing our worst. We work to create emotions, and oftentimes, our emotions have a way of coming out even when we wish they wouldn’t.

As a young child, these truths are more evident than ever. Children have all of the same emotions that we do, but they are not near as experienced as we are in controlling them. Early childhood has so many new experiences, and with that comes so many new emotions.

Perhaps no other experience is as dynamic and impactful in a young child as going to school. For the first time in his or her life, a child has to leave their father and mother and go to a foreign place with kids they don’t know and listen to a grown-up they’ve never met. This is obviously a very confusing time for a young child, and it’s inevitable that many new emotions will begin to surface.

There are a few things to keep in mind when your child or student begins to go through these experiences. First and foremost, it is absolutely OK for the child to be experiencing these emotions! We have to let our children know that is ok that they feel sad or lonely or confused right now. They are not in the wrong for feeling the way they do–it is a normal part of life and growing up.

Second, we have to teach our children about their emotions. When a child understands what an emotion is and why they are feeling the way they do, they can learn the appropriate way to internally respond to external situations. We have a great selection of resources that provide a fun and engaging way for children to learn about the emotions they are experiencing.

Third, provide a healthy avenue for your students to express their emotions to you. There are many reasons a student may be feeling the way they are, and as their teacher, it is beneficial for you to know the ‘why’ to their ‘what’. An effective way for the whole class to inform you how they are feeling is to start every day with a game or prompt for students to inform you how they are feeling. You can have them draw a ‘smiley face’ that expresses how they are feeling, or choose a number from 1-5 that describes their mood. If there is a particular child who really seems to not be doing well but they don’t feel comfortable talking about it, have them write a story that explains what they are going through. We can learn a lot about our children just by finding creative ways to allow them to express themselves.

Managing emotions in the classroom can be a challenging endeavor, but it is integral to ensuring our students are healthy and ready to learn. If you have found methods to allowing your students express their emotions in the classroom, please tell us about them in the comment section below.