As we continue our work on getting to know ourselves and others better, we focus on faces as a way of understanding how others might be feeling. This week, we introduced the children to a set of Feelez cards that depict faces expressing emotions and we asked them to partner up with the person next to them to discuss what their card’s feeling was and how they might know that.
“Mine’s angry.” ROSALIE
“Mine’s happy.” MILES
“Whoa, that’s very angry.” MILES
(looking at Rosalie’s)
“I wanted the happy one!” ROSALIE
“This one is happy because someone made it.”
MILES
“Well this one’s feeling angry because something made it angry.” ROSALIE
“Mine’s mad.” IAN (points to the mouth to show how he knows)
“It does look mad. Mine’s sad. Cause wrinkle, wrinkle…sad.” JULIA
“Mad. Angry.” CHARLIE S.
“Because someone maybe did something bad to the toys maybe.” CHARLIE N. (helping Charlie S. explain his card)
“Crying.” CHARLIE S.
“Tears.” CHARLIE N.
“I think he’s feeling mad because…(and she points to the eyebrows).” ADDIE
Tait looks closely at the card. “A sad face.” TAIT
We also brought a small group to the museum to look at the photographs of Larry Fink. By having the children look at the faces in his photographs, we wondered how they would interpret what these people were feeling. Interestingly, both with using the Feelez cards as well as with viewing Larry Fink’s photographs, we noticed that sometimes the children used words to describe these feelings and their ideas of why they felt this way, and sometimes they mimicked the facial expressions.
“I think she’s getting a haircut…She’s happy ‘cause she’s smiling.” CHARLIE N.
Do you see anyone else in the photograph?
“I think it’s her sister. She’s feeling proud.” CHARLIE
“She’s screaming.” LOUIS
How do you think she’s feeling?
“Happy.” RUTHIE
In reflection, we know that truly understanding another’s feelings goes beyond merely noticing the physical. Witnessing how the children notice expressions of feelings leaves us wondering how taking the time to “try on” these physical expressions, and even venturing to the why, begins to help the children truly understand the feelings of happiness, sadness, anger, and pride that they represent.
In this way, do we begin to…
“…find ourselves in others, or find others in ourselves?”
Larry Fink