Additional Activities
These activities offer options for continuing the learning in this unit. Whether your curriculum is skill-based or more open-ended, select the activities that are most appropriate for the children in your classroom. The Writing Spot is primarily a writing program, but writing can be integrated throughout your curriculum—in art, drama, reading, math, and science.
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Help someone feel better.
People have bad days and good days. Tell children that sending greeting cards is one way to help people feel better when they have been sick or have had a bad day. Consider sending cards from "Smile Note," "I like . . . ," "Star Note," and "Thank-You Note."
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Listen for feelings in stories.
As you read stories to children, ask them to listen for words that tell how people feel. After the reading, list some feeling words and discuss them. As a follow-up, the children can draw pictures or do skits related to the feelings in the story.
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Talk about how colors make you feel.
Colors are closely connected to feelings for many people. Read a book about colors. Then provide large colored-paper circles and invite children to write the color words on the circles. Next, ask children to give you words that tell how the colors make them feel. (Red may evoke the words “hot,” “angry,” “happy,” and so on.)
Have children imagine what it would be like to live inside of a rainbow. Write the rainbow-color names on the board and show samples of what each rainbow color looks like. Encourage children to think about the colors and about how each color makes them feel. Implement "My Feeling Rainbow."
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Say good things to change people’s feelings.
Share this proverb: Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Ask children if they believe this is true. Have a class discussion about the power of words—they can hurt someone’s feelings, they can make someone feel good, and so on. Make a list of “feel good” words, and encourage children to use them at school and at home.
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Send get-well cards when friends or classmates are sick.
Talk about the kinds of cards children would like to receive if they were sick. Would they want funny cards? What kinds of pictures would help? What colors would make them feel better? Have children create get-well cards with pictures and words.
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Create a set of feeling cards.
Have each child make a simple set of “feeling word” cards that can be displayed on their desks during this unit. Use words like happy, sad, mad, tired, sick. Explain to children that these cards are an important way to let you and others know how they feel. Encourage the children to change the cards as their feelings change. As time permits, initiate conversations with children about their displayed cards and why they feel that way. Laminate the cards, if possible, for durability, and devise a system for attaching them to desks (Velcro strips, perhaps).
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Send congratulation cards to help friends celebrate special times.
Talk about happy events: a birthday, a new baby brother or sister, a new pet, an accomplishment. Introduce a new word: CELEBRATE. Explain that cards can celebrate a friend’s happiness, and show example cards that do this. Invite children to create their own cards by modeling the cards you have shown.
