Love and Emotions

“Our feelings are not there to be cast out or conquered. They’re there to be engaged and expressed with imagination and intelligence.”
​-T.K. Coleman

In February, we especially like to focus on themes of love, kindness, and emotional intelligence! The best way to raise children to be great global citizens in the future is to create a culture of kindness. Kindness can be shown in many ways! Here's some examples from The Thoughtful Parent of how to foster kindness in children:

1. Model kindness - children learn by watching you!
2. Practice prospecting speaking - "What would that feel like?"
3. Teach self compassion - kindness towards others is only half the picture!
4. Use mindful speech - encourage a pause before speaking to ensure the words are kind.
5. Instill good manners - a simple "please" and "thank you" can go a long way!
6. Help others - volunteer as a family in an area that interests your child.
7. Notice the effects of kindness - kindness brings joy!

When we think about love, we want children to be able to express how they love, respect, and value themselves as well as others. One of the best ways we can show love to each other is by being understanding of the people around us. We highlight this by focusing on cooperation, collaboration, and inclusivity.

​To explore our feelings and emotions, we always emphasize social-emotional development. We use cooperation and teamwork every day during play, and continually fostering a strong emotional intelligence among our kids is something we strive for! Skills like regulating and identifying emotions are a foundational part of every kid’s development and here at ACG we particularly explore this through the use of Conscious Discipline. For more info on what this looks like, check out our past blog Emotional Intelligence!

Kindness Bracelets

These bracelets are so much fun! With each color we put on our bracelet, we would ask a new question to get to know our friends better:

Yellow - What is your favorite movie?
Blue - What is your house like?
Green - What do you like to eat?
Red - What are some of your favorite things to do for fun?
Orange - What is your favorite animal?


Then the kids were encouraged to give their bracelet to someone else as an act of kindness!

"I want to give my bracelet to my friend!"
"I'm making mine for my whole family to share!"

ME! Books

The children articulated things they like about themselves and that are special to them to create their very own ME! book.

What people and things make me? What do I like about myself?

Collaborative Artwork

Wonderful things can happen when children work together: greater energy, words of encouragement, consideration of equality, thinking out loud, taking leadership roles, listening to other opinions, and generating new ideas.

Collaborative drawing

Collaborative collage

Drawing our Emotions

Identifying facial expressions as a type of emotion is an important step in practicing empathy.

Working Together!

There are so many ways we naturally work together every day during play, from digging sand pits to building tall towers!

Garden Broccoli!

Now that our broccoli plants are big enough to eat, a broccoli for the whole class to share is our favorite treat! The kids love eating the plants they help grow!

Outside Fun!

Healthy Chocolates!

Simple, no-bake, no-sugar yumminess. Combine 1 cup of warmed coconut butter, 1 cup of warmed coconut oil, 1/2 cup cacao powder, 1/3 cup coconut flour, and 4 TBS monkfruit sweetener. Then spoon into heart molds, refrigerate for at least 2 hours, and tong hemp seeds or shredded coconut on top. 

See you next time :)