Time
20 minutes
Level
Primary / Junior
Material
Paper plates, construction paper, crayons, glue, other decorative materials
Purpose
To illustrate how we need to nurture positive feelings
This practice can be introduced during springtime with younger children, or while learning about planting seeds and helping them grow.
- Educators create one or more large flower shapes with five to ten separate petals, in a range of colours.
- Introduce the core idea of nurturing happy feelings in ourselves, and in others, to help them grow.
- Brainstorm things that help people grow happy feelings (e.g., when someone is nice to me, my friends, singing, giving presents, playing with my dog).
- Each idea is placed on a petal and added to the flower, which can be decorated by students.
- The class flower can be posted as a reminder to look for opportunities to nurture happy feelings in ourselves and others.
Prepare individual flowers and decorate them. Everyone hangs their flower on the wall with their name on it as a reminder about how they can also help their classmates grow happy feelings.
Students’ emotional states in the classroom are an important part of their learning. When students associate their learning environment with positive feelings, they are more engaged in learning, as happiness broadens our scope of attention (Huntsinger, 2013), and happy, optimistic moods are associated with creative thinking on knowledge-driven tasks (Fredrickson, 2001).
Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The Role of Positive Emotions in Positive Psychology. American Psychologist, 56(3), 218-226. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.218
Huntsinger, J. (2013). Does Emotion Directly Tune the Scope of Attention? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(4), 265-270. doi:10.1177/0963721413480364
This is a good way to help students understand that we are responsible for our own happiness but we can still help foster it in ourselves and others.
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