Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships 

What Is Emotional Literacy?

TOPIC 1: EMOTIONAL LITERACY 

Emotional literacy can be defined as the abilit to understand ourselves and other people. It includes the ability to understand, express and manage our own emotions, build empathy, and to respond appropriately to the emotions of others. Building a large vocabulary for emotions helps to increase emotional literacy and build self-awareness and empathy for others. 

An example of a RRRR lesson in Foundation (Prep) class 

Activity 4: We help to keep our bodies safe 

Method 1. Sit students in a circle.

 Explain that there are lots of things we can do to help everyone to feel safe in the classroom. Provide an example of an action, for example, saying hello. Invite students to add some suggestions. Acknowledge and reinforce students’ contributions and invite or provide examples of how the suggestion might work as an action. 

2. Point out, ‘Because there are a lot of people in the one room, we need ways to make sure that we help to keep our bodies safe. To help us think about that, we are going to play a game.’ Say to students, ‘Imagine we are each sitting inside a bubble. Our own bubble is the little bit of space all around each of us. We are going to practise walking around, very carefully, so we don’t bump into anyone and burst their bubble.’ 

3. Arrange for students to practise this. Ask students to stand up and walk slowly making sure they protect their bubble and other students’ bubbles by looking carefully to avoid bumping. Consider asking students to start in slow motion if they are finding this challenging. 

4. Once students are seated again, ask them what they did to make sure they did not burst anyone’s bubble. 

Provide positive feedback on the actions they took, for example, looking around, noticing other people, being careful about what they did with their own body, and not moving so fast that they could not manage this. 

Reinforce the idea that each student’s bubble can be a safe space for their body. Ask, ‘How can we make sure we look after our own or someone else’s bubble when we are sitting on the mat, at tables and in the playground?’ 

Examples include sitting still, keeping our hands to ourselves, taking turns on the play equipment, waiting in line and taking