emotional awareness and feeling

The "self-portraits of emotions" that we began while Amy was visiting, took on a wider appeal during the days that followed.  The children eagerly drew feelings like: happy, sad, angry, mad, missing, jealous, hungry and others.

Their drawings reflected time spent examining features and characteristics of various emotions.  As they worked they chatted with friends about stories that were evoked by drawing a feeling: the time a dog died, getting Halloween candy while trick or treating with friends, etc.

As others passed through the studio, children often engaged them in looking at the colors in their eyes, or the expressions each emotion evoked on their faces.
When portraits were complete, many lined up, picture in hand, to share with me the words behind their feelings and waited patiently as I transcribed their words for them.
Here are a few collections of their poetic expressions:

Sad

Sad feels like an empty house.  

Sad feels like not having food in the night time.  

Sad feels like leaving my Grandma’s house.

Sad is a feeling.  When I’m sad I need a tissue, a sip of water and a big hug and kiss from my grandma, my mama, my dad or my big sister or baby sister.

Sad is okay.

Happy

Happy feels like having stars in your bedroom. 

Happy feels like my big brother hugging me.

Happy feels like chicken nuggets. 

Happy feels like when my mama laughs. 

Happy feels like smiling.

Happy feels like going to school.

Happy feels like, “I love you”.

Happy feels like love.

Happy feels like pizza with cheese.  

Happy feels like singing.

To feel happy you have to take deep breaths.

When I’m happy I only need love.

When I’m happy I don’t need anything else.

When I’m happy I need to take some space so I stay happy.
When I’m happy I just need food.

When I’m happy I need a hug.

Jealous

Jealous feels like wanting to do stuff funner and better than anybody else.

Jealous feels like a tight tummy.

Jealous is green.

When I’m jealous I need to feel like I’m enough.

Mad

I drew mad.  

Mad feels like when I can’t go play outside.

Mad feels like when no one wants to play with me.

That’s sad too.  Mad and sad can happen at the sametime.

When I’m mad I need a hug, to be able to be mad, stay away from whoever was being mean til I’m not mad anymore. 
When I’m mad I need a hug from my brother and some time for myself.

The children humble and inspire me daily, with their courage and openness, depth and enthusiasm. Did I mention that I LOVE MY JOB.