Utica Community Schools issued the following announcement on Feb 10.
With students returning to full, in-person learning this school year, West Utica Elementary hoped to emphasize the importance of social emotional learning for its students throughout the year.
To help guide monthly topics, West Utica adopted lessons on emotions from the children’s book series, A Little Spot of Emotion by Diane Alber, which teaches readers about feelings such as happiness, anxiety and sadness.
To highlight January’s featured emotion, confidence, West Utica brought in a red carpet and photo backdrop to transform their media center into an area to boost student confidence.
Students had the opportunity to shine as their best authentic self by walking the red carpet. They were invited to showcase their confidence by wearing an outfit that made them feel amazing, highlighting a talent of theirs or bringing in a prop that represented something they loved.
“I learned that showing off something you love can help grow your friendships more,” fifth grader Ferris Shaina said.
“My friend did Rubik’s Cube like me, but I never knew. So, when he showed his talent with the Rubik’s Cube it gave us something to connect on.”
By rolling out the red carpet, West Utica staff hoped the activity would help students realize their uniqueness and appreciate themselves for who they are, all while making others smile.
“As teachers, we believe confidence is important because when you feel good, you do good,” shared the Positive Behavior Intervention Support team at West Utica who helped put the event together.
“If we can teach students to believe in themselves and appreciate themselves for who they are, hopefully they will strive to be leaders and inspire others, too.”
Despite some initial nerves from some, the students were genuinely engaged with the activity and ended up having the best time.
“I saw students who rarely smile in class absolutely glowing on that carpet,” fifth grade teacher, Marie Wojnowski said.
“I was also impressed by the student support that I saw through smiles and cheering from the whole class as each student walked down the red carpet. It was amazing.”
“Confidence is such a widespread topic that is talked about a lot, but we have a long way to go in making each other feel okay with being ourselves and feeling confident in our own beauty,” said Carrera. “I think things like this show that people have more friends than they think.”Sixth grader, Alejandra Carrera, was so inspired by the event that she chose to write a speech completely on her own which was later shared with the school.
Shining a spotlight on emotions, A Little Spot has made a big impact on the students at West Utica Elementary.
“It is our hope that these books and activities will help students understand their emotions better and help us build a more calm, loving and caring school atmosphere,” said fourth grade teacher, Rebecca Jonkman.
Along with confidence, West Utica has taught students about anger and happiness, while future emotion topics include love, anxiety, sadness and peacefulness.
Original source can be found here.
Source: Utica Community Schools
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