Social Emotional Explorations

YOU ARE STILL YOU UNDER THE MASK

VIDEO: THE MASKS WE’VE ALWAYS WORN - PreK to 2nd Grade

Now we’d like to think about the masks we have always worn, like our everyday masks of acting brave when we are scared or happy when we are down.  Sometimes we aren’t ready to share our real feelings, and that's a mask we are wearing.  For PreK - 2nd graders.

This video is suggested for PreK through 2nd grade. Social Emotional Learning Consultant: Dr. Amy Franklin

VIDEO: BEHIND THE MASK

There are many feelings about the masks we have to wear today. What are yours? What do you think your friends think about them? How can you tell what they are feeling when you can only see their eyes? Let's see what some of our Twirl friends think.

This video is suggested for PreK through 2nd grade. Social Emotional Learning Consultant: Dr. Amy Franklin

VIDEO: THE MASKS WE’VE ALWAYS WORN - 2nd to 5th grade

Liana and Amber explore the social emotional masks we wear when we pretend to feel differently than we do. For kids 2nd to 5th grade.

Liana and Amber explore the social emotional masks we wear when we pretend to feel differently than we do. For kids 2nd to 5th grade.

VIDEO: THE WAY WE FEEL ABOUT MASKS - 2nd to 5th grade

Join Liana and friends and explore the ways that masks make us feel. This video is made for older kids.

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POSSIBLE THINGS TO TALK ABOUT

PreK- 5th Grade

  • How do you feel about wearing a mask today for Covid?

  • Do you think people can see enough of your face?

  • What other kinds of masks have you worn?

  • When someone’s wearing a mask today, what part of their face can you see?  Is that enough to know what they are feeling? 

3rd - 5th grade

  • Do you know anyone who feels the opposite way to you about wearing a mask? Why do you think they feel that way?

  • How do you feel about other people wearing or not wearing masks today? 

  • What parts of the face move to give expressions (lips, eyebrows, cheeks, eyes, forehead)? 

  • Have you ever “masked” your true feelings?  Have you pretended to feel or be something you weren’t, like happy when you were sad.? If so, what were you feeling and what did you pretend to feel?  Who did you perform this for?  Who do you not need a mask for (when can you show how you really feel)?

  • How else do we mask our feelings? What about tone of voice? Do we change how we say things depending on how we are feeling?

  • How do we use body language to share how we are feeling? Can we use body language to mask our feelings?

EXTENSION ACTIVITIES 

PreK - 5th Grade

  • Mood Sketching: expressing your feelings through drawing a simple face that shows how you feel at the moment. This can be used as a simple activity for daily mood check in with class. 

  • Mood meter activity. Use a paper plate and divide it with markers into “pie slices” and label each slice with a feeling word you have sometimes or a color that matches a feeling or a picture of the feeling. If you have a word wall with the class, have students refer to it to think of words to put in the pie slices.  Put a spinner in the middle of the plate and use the spinner to share how you're feeling right then. Can be used as a daily check in activity or a one time activity. Or spin and whatever word the spinner lands on, share a time when you felt that way.  Thanks to Katherine Chavez from TIWA Babies for this idea. 

  • Twirl Me In My Mask Activity Sheet PRINTABLE PDF

  • Using any masks you have made that express emotion, put them on and share what feelings the mask shows.

  • Have students brainstorm and create a word bank of “feelings” words so students have access to various descriptive words for feelings.

3rd -5th grade

  •  Create your own superhero with a power and design a mask for them?  What would the superhero do with their  powers? How would a mask help them?

  • If you could have a superpower what would it be?  Make a mask for yourself to use the super power. 

  • Make a ritual mask for yourself, to match a “ritual” or activity you create for yourself.  A ritual is something you do all the time like brushing your teeth or riding your bike.  Make a mask to do this. 

  • Think of a time you were feeling one way  but masked it and pretended to feel another way  (putting on a brave face for example.) Write how the event would have been different if you had taken off your mask. How would it have affected other people involved?

  • Think of a time where because of the masks today you missed a social cue- if it's all from eyes and brows, are we sure about others’ feelings?

  • Try these two activities on Enhancing Emotional Literacy from Amy Franklin’s Choose to Change book:

  • Check out the “kernels” in this guide https://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/6-exercises-for-teaching-sel-this-school.html

  • Check out these activities: https://consciousdiscipline.com/75-ways-for-kids-to-connect-and-contribute/

  • A great exercise where you are encouraged to wear a mask and experience the emotions of the mask. https://annex.exploratorium.edu/mind/emotion/masks/v1/

  • Change your tone of voice and exaggerate different ways of saying "nice shirt" or "good morning" see how we use tone of voice to communicate feelings or mask them. Now use body language in the same activities and change the way your body expresses emotions.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

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