Emotional regulation activity

In the playground, one girl from 4th of primary -9 years old- is separated from the others and is not playing anymore with them. She usually stays in the playground playing with them, they are her closest friends. The teacher goes with the girl and asks her what is wrong and why is not playing with her friends. The girl answers that her foot hurts and does not want to play because it will hurt more.

At first, the teacher believes the story that the girl tells him off, but then the teacher remembered that this same girl was in this same situation the week before. But instead of hurting his foot, she had a headache. At the end of the playground time, all students are called to go to class and the teacher sees the girl running to be the first on the row.

When the teacher sees the girl running, goes and talks to her with the aim of discovery what has truly happened and try to solve the situation. When talking with the girl, she explains her that her best friend has told her that she is no longer her best friend and that another girl of the group is. Once the teacher knows what has actually happened, he tries to make her see that leaving the group without trying to speak with her friends and staying alone will not solve the situation. The teacher tells her that once she feels upset, what she has to do is to try to explain her friends what she is feeling in order for them to know that what they have said has made her feel sad. Besides, the teacher tries to make the girl see the point of view of her friends in order to understand their feelings too.

Finally, the teacher asks the girl to go and talk with her friends and so, solve the problem. 

Phases:

1. anger: the first emotion the girl feels is to get irritated and angry with all her friends

2. jealousy & envy: the child realizes that her best friend has another best friend so she feels excluded and no longer her friend. She wants to get back to the place of being the “best friend”

3. sadness & loneliness: as she is not friend anymore of one girl of the class, the rest of the girls don’t want to be their friend neither. The child feels alone and do not play with anyone in the playground.

4. regret: after talking with the teacher, the girl realizes she understand the situation and what she has felt and try to get on well again with her friends

5. relief: once the situation is fixed, the girl knows that her initial thought were wrong and that he keeps being friend with the other girl. 

Objectives:

• Understand the own emotions
• Understand the emotions of others
• Express the own emotions
• Face the emotions
• Learn how to regulate the emotions

Relation with the age of the students:

At the age of 8-10, kids are able to identify two emotions of the same typology that come from a common situation. Besides, kids at this age are also capable of classify the emotions they feel in positive and negative ones. In the situation raised, the girl feels and distinguishes both jealousy and envy when her friend tells her she is no longer her best friend and she has been replaced by another girl of the group. The girl is also able to identify those emotions as negative because they make them be in a bad mood and sad. 

Kids of 8-10 years old need the help of the teacher in order to calm their emotions and relax. In the situation we have raised, the teacher helps the student not only to appease the sensations the girl is experiencing. In addition, the teacher helps the girl understand her responsibility on this situation (making her see that isolating herself is not the way to solve problems) and also gives her guidance for her to be able to overcome the difficulties and solve her own problems.