Emotional ABCs
Overview
Emotional ABCs is America’s most awarded skills program. This program is no longer free for classroom teachers and school counselors. Teachers can sign up for a FREE seven day trial.
The website is geared for grades kindergarten - fourth grade. It consists of 20 sequential workshops that instruct students in the following: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and responsible decision-making. It follows the national guidelines for the emotional skills curriculum. This includes more than 100 interactive activities including drawing, puzzles, video clips, mix-and-match games, an audio dictionary, playing cards, printouts, and more.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
- Be able to learn and recognize their feelings.
- Be able to learn how to manage their feelings (pause, rewind, play).
Vocabulary
Vocabulary Words:
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Pause: Pause means you take a deep breath.
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Rewind: Rewind means to think about what happened to give you this feeling.
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Play: Play means you know how to make a good choice.
Pre-planning
To prepare for this lesson:
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Click on the video play button to hear an overview of the Emotional ABC's website.
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Go to the website and sign up for the free teacher account.
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You will then choose your avatar and password.
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Click on the Lesson List and you can see the different lessons they offer. We will be presenting lessons 1 and 2 on emotional vocabulary and feelings.
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Click on the Teacher icon and you can print out photos ahead of time to use with the students.
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Print out moody playing cards for students to use at the end of the lesson. To access, click on teachers then activity and finally click on moody face cards color version. You can also copy and paste this link to print off the cards.
Accommodations
See the Accommodations Page and Charts on the 21things4students website in the Teacher Resources.
Steps
Directions for this activity:
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Teachers will log into the website https://www.emotionalabcs.com/.
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Click on Lesson List and video to begin. Students will sit on the carpet.
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During the lesson, call on students to come up and select the correct matching face to the emotion on the clever touch board.
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Students will compare emotions to the weather. Emotions, just like the weather, are constantly changing.
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After the video, students will demonstrate understanding by creating drawings that compare changeable weather to changeable emotions.
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Divide students into groups and have them paste pictures or draw and compare the weather to emotions.
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Students will play the Moody Card Game in groups of 4-6.
Assessment Options
Different options for assessing the students:
- Observations
- Check for understanding
- There are some questions that are embedded in some of the videos that students can answer as a class.
- A great way to assess the students is by watching how they react when they get emotional throughout the week.
MITECS Competencies & ISTE STANDARDS
MITECS: Michigan adopted the "ISTE Standards for Students" called MITECS (Michigan Integrated Technology Competencies for Students) in 2018.
Creative Communicator
6d. Students publish or present content that customizes the message and medium for their intended audiences.
Empowered Learner
1c. Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.
Global Collaborator
7c. Students contribute constructively to project teams, assuming various roles and responsibilities to work effectively toward a common goal.
Devices and Resources
Device: PC, Chromebook, Mac, iPad
Browser: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, ALL
App, Extension, or Add-on:
Websites:
Emotional ABCs Website
CONTENT AREA RESOURCES
ELA
Students can write a short piece describing what they learned.
Integrated Arts
- The ability to accurately recognize one’s emotions and thoughts and their influence on behavior.
- The ability to regulate one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations. This includes managing stress, controlling impulses, motivating oneself, and setting and working toward achieving personal and academic goals.
CREDITS
This task card was created by Dawn Phillips, Wyoming Public Schools, January 2020. Updated November 2023.