Emotional intelligence resources by Jen Featch

Kimochi

2025-08-25 09:21:18 UTC

I saw my mentor teacher in kindy use fun, hands-on tools to help kids recognise, name, and manage their feelings. It was called Kimochis, a social-emotional learning program featuring plush characters like Cloud, Bug, or Huggtopus. Each character shows different emotions and challenges. Take Cloud, for example; it switches between happy and sad faces, which helps kids see that feelings can change and that all feelings are okay. Kids learn how they express them.

How is your engine today?

2025-08-26 01:53:54 UTC

A great check in with the kindy kids my mentor had was an engine fuel gage, she would ask the children at the start of the day and offer calming activities in the rotations for children to have extra time to settle in. She would us it regularly with the neurodiverse children to see if she could get them to show her or tell her why so that she could offer solutions, support and extra help.

Fill your bucket/Phoenix cups

2025-08-26 02:01:46 UTC

Fill your bucket using the invisible bucket, to ensure that each child's bucket is filled with happiness and kindness.

Also as a teacher using the Phoenix Cups method to ensure that you are filling up your cups to minimise burn out and getting a healthy balance.

The zones of regulation

2025-08-31 10:12:16 UTC

Many teachers use the zones of regulation to help students identify their emotions and also use it to identify the behaviour choices they make

Kimochi's & Bucket Fillers

2025-09-02 00:55:48 UTC

Kimochi's:

At the school I work at, every early childhood class has its own set of kimochis, and these are amazing for supporting every child in the class. This support can be emotional, physical (if they get injured or sick), or even practical. Also, our school psychologist works with each class, but specifically the early childhood classes, she works with the kimochis to help the students learn about emotions and how we can regulate these and all the different types of kimochis, as there are different types of ones, and they all have a specific need that they help children meet when they hold them stay with them for the whole day.

Bucket fillers:

My school also uses bucket fillers and especially in early childhood the children absolutley love this as this gives them a visual representation of how they are going and they know its not just about their behaviour it could be that they helped clean the classroom when they werent asked to or something like where they weren't talking while the teacher was or if thier on the mat and the teacher can see they are listening and participating with the acitvities they are doing on the mat. It depends on the teacher, but some teachers might have prizes for the children who get 10 bucket fillers (Once they have filled their bucket up, which is 10 bucket fillers), or they could get classroom rewards they could as sitting on a special chair all day or something like that.

Resilience Project

2025-09-09 13:52:46 UTC

Provides many resources on emotional literacy

Traffic light

2025-09-14 12:46:26 UTC

I have seen a few early childhood services and Kindy in schools use the traffic light resource to help children regulate their emotions. Green means the child is happy, regulated and ready to learn. Yellow means the child may have mixed feelings, such as worry, confusion, or nervousness. Here, children are reminded to pause, think about their options, and consider the consequences of their actions before responding. Red means the child may be feeling strong emotions such as anger, frustration, or feeling out of control. When children are in the “red zone,” they are encouraged to stop, take a break, and use calming strategies (e.g., deep breathing, counting, or moving to a quiet space).