This month in Preschool 2, we have been working hard on self-regulation and emotional regulation. Something that we have brought into our classroom is a 3-way mirror. We set this up at a small table with different emotions and calm down strategies. The children will go and sit at the table with the mirror and often times the educators notice them expressing themselves in it or making silly faces.
This is a great tool to use with our group to work on self-regulation. “Look look, I’m smiling. That means I’m happy!” Harlee said with excitement. The children are working on recognizing all the different emotions and feelings. “The face looks sad” Aubree said looking at a child in a book with tears in his eyes. When having conflict, they let the other child know how they are feeling and how their actions affected them. “That made me sad and frustrated when you knocked my tower over” Connor said to a peer. We have been working with our group on expressing our feelings towards one another when problems arise. This gives them a sense of expression which is a foundation from our document How Does Learning Happen?
In conclusion, this tool has been a great addition to our classroom. It allows the children to work on building self-confidence, self-regulation and emotional regulation.
