Vacay to Vocab: Jitters to JOY!

August. If you haven’t already started school, you most likely have been in your classroom creating a welcoming place for your new students. Social media and websites are full of ideas for classroom decor. But why do we put so much time, at so much personal expense, to create a beautiful organized space for learning? We do it because we know our children will enter our rooms with anxiety and questions:

Will my teacher(s) like me?

Will I see old friends and make new friends?

What if I miss my family?

Is the work going to be too hard?

As we create these spaces to communicate care, ignite curiosity, and calm those jitters, we can equip our students with the words to express their BIG feelings.

Just as their growing bodies adjust from the lazy vacay days of summer to the more rigorous fall schedule of school, sports and after school activities, so too must their vocabulary grow so they can manage their feelings in a healthy way. There is a reason so many get their first cold of the season once school begins… and its not just germ exposure. Our bodies are tired and stressed as we make the transition.

So take the time to grow those mad, sad, glad words to more precise emotional labels. Equipping students with more accurate representations of their emotions can bring them from jitters to JOY!

Here are some precise words for emotions that you may wish to explicitly teach so the children can accurately represent what they are feeling. We want to lift the level of their words from sad and bad. As you build community in these first few weeks, use this word list to move feelings away from JITTERS and towards JOY.

Also plan for YOUR self care. That first week of school is an exhausting one! No one does their best when feeling stressed and overwhelmed. Think about small ways you can care for yourself during these busy days: a lunchtime walk, a cup of tea, a little music, lights off. Even breathing works wonders!