Self awareness is one's ability to understand their own emotions, regulate them, and the impact they have on others. In Kindergarten, students are still learning about their own feelings and how to regulate them, as well as beginning to understand how they can impact others feelings. In my classroom, we do daily lessons from the Positivity project that include: short videos, read alouds, mindfulness activities, and brief discussions about feelings/emotions, the control we have over our own and introducing the perspective of how we influence the way others feel. There are a lot of incidental learning opportunities as the students learn to work with peers in class and during free time and modeling occurs throughout the day. The addition of the mindfulness activities has had a great impact on helping students to self regulate both when they are upset but also to settle into learning and during transitions throughout the day.
