Building Community

Emotions! – Rock, Paper, Scissors– normalizes emotions

  1. Students walk around and show the following emotions in the order listed below:
  2. Surprised
  3. Worked
  4. Disgusted
  5. Angry
  6. Sad
  7. Happy
  8. Students find a partner and play: rock, paper, scissors – if they win, they move on to the next emotion and repeat the first two steps until they make it to “happy”
  9. Can only play against someone with the same emotion

Feeling Thumb Balls– Teaches students how to name the emotions they are feeling- resilience

  1. Throw the ball to a person
  2. The other student catches it and looks at what emotion their thumb touches
  3. Game 1: What feeling am I showing? (show by acting)
  4. Game 2: What feeling are you hearing? (show it by saying “Jelly Beans”)
  5. Game 3: What feeling is the story? (tell a story that shows the emotion)
  • NOTE: Since thumb balls can be expensive, a teacher can purchase a small soft ball from the dollar store, and write emotions on the white parts of the ball

Hi Five!– To connect with students and learn their names

  1. Hi 5 a student and say, “Hi! My name is ___________!” Wait for their reply of the same thing: “Hi! My name is __________!”
  2. Say, “It’s nice to meet you!”
  3. Move on to the next person