Teachers Guide - Operation Respect

Take It to the Community
Since this is your first community initiative of the Don’t Laugh at Me project, we recommend
keeping children’s efforts focused on bringing their learning to your school community (and not
yet beyond).
• In pairs, ask children: “What have you learned so far in the program about feelings?”
Bringing the large group back together, list on the board all of the things children have
learned about feelings.
Feelings
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all feelings are important
there’s a wide rainbow of feelings
sometimes we hurt others’ feelings by what we do or don’t do
we need to appropriately express our feelings
there are many ways to calm down when we’re angry
a Peace Place helps us appropriately manage our feelings
we can be strong with our anger without being mean
• Then brainstorm with children about how to share what they’ve learned about feelings with
the rest of the school. Choose one project to do as a group. Perhaps children want to do a
poster campaign in the halls with slogans about why feelings are important. Or they may
want to do an art project creating a Feelings Rainbow for the halls or cafeteria.
• Present the concept of a Peace Place to your colleagues at a faculty meeting. Find out who
else is using this concept and how. Share ideas and stories.
Next Steps
For children to be truly skillful in expressing their feelings appropriately, they will need
additional practice with the concepts presented in this unit, including:
• identifying feelings in self and others
• identifying anger triggers and cues in self and others
• effectively managing feelings of anger (cooling-down strategies)
• asserting needs appropriately when angry
• dealing with loss and grief
To provide opportunities for skill building, practice, and raising awareness on the healthy
expression of feelings:
• Use fun music and movement activities through Linking Up! by Sarah Pirtle, available
through Educators for Social Responsibility, 800-370-2515, www.esrnational.org
• Draw on the countless wonderful activities for exploring feelings provided in Creative
Conflict Resolution by William J. Kreidler, available through Educators for Social
Responsibility, 800-370-2515, www.esrnational.org
Expressing Feelings © 2000 Operation Respect, Inc. and Educators for Social Responsibility 27