Wellbeing

Building Emotional Awareness

Emotional awareness helps us know what we need and want (or don't want!). It helps us build better relationships. That's because being aware of our emotions can help us talk about feelings more clearly, avoid or resolve conflicts better, and move past uncomfortable feelings more easily. Sometimes it is not easy to articulate our emotions.

As part of building Emotional Literacy and Awareness, we use a range of different tools across the school that the students can reference when challenges arise. 

Catastrophe Scale

The catastrophe scale is a tool we use to measure how bad a problem is. It helps us put our problems into perspective by using examples and connects emotions and reactions to each level of problem. Below is an example of the catastrophe scale that we might use and reference in the classroom.  

My Circle of Control

The Circles of Control help us visualise what things in our life we can control, and what things we cannot. It is especially helpful for students learning to understanding friendship dynamics and social interactions that they cannot influence. Below is an example that we might reference in the classroom using both words and pictures. 

Emotional Vocabulary

Building our emotional vocabulary gives us the ability to recognise, understand and appropriately express the way we are feeling. Learning to recognise and identify emotions and how to respond to the feelings of others is a core part of a child’s social development. This is the foundation for developing friendships. One resource we use regularly in the classroom to develop the emotional vocabulary of our students is an emotion wheel. By developing a common language around emotions, our students are better able to navigate big feelings, express themselves clearly and communicate how they are feeling.  

As always, please feel free to reach out for more information about anything related to Friendology, Respectful Relationships, student wellbeing or individual concerns you may have. I am contactable via compass, through the office or via email – louise.jarvis@education.vic.gov.au

Have a lovely weekend,

Louise Jarvis

Wellbeing Specialist Teacher