Emotion Response – How does it make you feel?
Picture News resources allow a fabulous opportunity to explore emotions; how we may respond differently to the same thing and how although we may not agree with someone else’s feelings, we must respect and accept them.
The beauty of an emotional response is it cannot be wrong. It is yours; it is how you feel. It may change as you listen and explore other responses or see things from someone else’s viewpoint, which is actually another learning point – this is okay too!
So, how and when can you fit an ‘emotion response’ into your Picture News assemblies?
The first opportunity is after sharing the week’s story. This is a great place as it is the initial ‘gut’ feeling. Shocked, sad, happy, angry, confused? There is an emotion response grid on your assembly PowerPoint (found on your online area) as we cannot possibly miss an opportunity for children to be exposed to ambitious vocabulary and be given the opportunity to ‘up-level’. The more you do this, the more courageous children become. You will find instead of copying what they think is the right response, they begin to accept they cannot be wrong. They may disagree with their friend, but this is fine!
After the initial response, there are several open questions and opportunities to delve in a little deeper. Ask why we feel like this and share opinions. It is so wonderful to witness the dialogue between children with differing opinions, who can articulate their feelings passionately whilst respecting a response from someone else that is the complete opposite. This is something that does, for some children, come with practise and lots of support and modelling but the more you do it and the more children are given opportunities to disagree, the better they get!
For younger children or for children who have difficulty articulating emotions or even managing their emotions, we have Peter the Picture News Bear. You can explore his different reactions to basic emotions by looking at his facial expressions and what his body is doing. If a news story makes you feel angry, what are you going to do? How are you going to react? What will you do with that anger? How will you manage it?
When children are exposed to a variety of different words in order to express their emotions regularly, they are more likely to begin to use them in their everyday language.
We believe that being able to understand and manage emotions is essential – a life skill. Because Picture News is current affairs (it is real, and it is happening now), the emotion response is real. Children explore their feelings, learn about themselves and understand that we are all different. However we feel, it is not wrong. We should accept and embrace our emotions, both the ones that feel good and the ones that do not feel so good.