Use Your Words
We don't always succeed in everything we try. Sometimes our determination is enough to make us keep trying, but sometimes we need someone who can encourage us and help us sustain the belief that we can succeed even when we doubt ourselves. We can learn from the strength of the people we trust the most, people who guide us, but do not take over for us. The life-long lesson lies in the willingness to keep on trying.
Language plays a key role in helping children deal with their feelings. Feelings are a part of being human. Of course, talking about feelings can be a challenge for people at any age; even more so for young children who don't use words well, especially when they are upset. Sometimes feelings can feel jumbled inside and are hard to sort out or name. That can be one of the times when children find it most difficult to tell us how they feel. Just like Daniel Tiger in DANIEL TIGER'S NEIGHBORHOOD is still learning to express his feelings through words, young children must learn this skill from the trusted, caring adults in their lives.
In this set of resources, we will focus on how you can help children learn to use words to express how they are feeling so others will understand how they feel and/or what they what.
Watch
Watch the videos about Using Your Words and think about how you could use them as part of an activity or throughout the year as children learn how to express themselves when faced with frustration or challenges.
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Episode: All Aboard
Daniel and Katerina are playing "train" at school, but things aren't going Katerina's way. Meow! Katerina learns that others will not be able to help her if they don't understand why she is upset. With Teacher Harriet's help, Katerina and Daniel learn to use their words to tell each other how they feel.
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Clip #1: Strategy Song: “Use Your Words!”
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Clip #2: Katerina wants to be the train engineer, but she doesn't use her words to tell Daniel. Instead she just says "Grrr." Teacher Harriet helps her use her words to tell Daniel what she wants.
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Explore
Use these resources to further explore the topic of Using Your Words in your classroom.
Share
Share these resources with the families of your students, so they can continue the conversation at home.
Both children and adults have plenty of times in their lives when they are flooded with emotions. We can all use practice in learning how to use words to separate our feelings from our actions.