1st Grade: Emotion Management
Your first grader is learning how to use clues, like looking at a person’s face and body and what’s going on, to guess how someone is feeling. They also learn words to describe more complex feelings—worried, calm, and frustrated. Toward the end of the unit, they practice 2 ways to feel calm when they experience strong emotions: asking for help and slow counting.
Why is it important? Research shows that children who learn the skills in this unit are more likely to:
Practice at Home
What to Look For: Notice and praise your child when they recognize and label how someone else is feeling by looking at their face and body and what’s going on. You can say, “It does seem like your cousin is frustrated! He’s frowning, and he can’t get to the toy on the table. Good job using clues to guess how he feels.”
Discuss: A few times a week, ask your child, “When did you feel frustrated or worried today? What did you do to feel calm?”
Practice: After your child has learned slow counting at school, practice with them. Count slowly from 1 to 10, clapping quietly with each number.
