As the West Wing children continue to explore representing feelings through watercolors, new keywords for feelings are expressed. We discuss the possible meanings of these new words and continue to delve into the shared understanding we are trying to convey and the feelings we are trying to express.
Jacob: It is going to take a long time to turn it into jealous.
Fiona: I think of red when I think of jealous.
Jacob: I think of all the colors.
Mabel: Me too.
Jacob: Jealous mixes the colors.
Julian: I don’t know what jealous means.
Jacob: If you are feeling jealous, you can’t help it.
Jealous was a new feeling to consider. The complexity of the emotion left the children wondering what it meant and prompted them to reach out to others. During reflection meeting, the children worked out a shared understanding that jealous stemmed from seeing someone do something that you wish to do but can’t.
Charlie brought the word “hurt” to everyone’s attention at another appointment. He first talked about a physical hurt – a push from an older brother. Then, he began to explore the nuance of the feeling.
Teacher Jessica: Have you ever had your feelings hurt?
Charlie: When Lucy took a toy from me… I was sad.
Lola: And also frustrated.
Arrow: Jealous means you are very mad and Jacob wanted to make jealous. Jealous means very mad and very frustrated.
Teacher Jessica: What would make you feel very mad and frustrated, like jealous? Has that ever happened to you?
Arrow: Yeah. When I was going to ice skate, I tripped. I started feeling very mad and frustrated. I wanted my daddy to help me up and that was it. It just means ‘needed my daddy’.
Liliana: Jealous means sad.
Crosby: Maybe jealous means sad and frustrated and mad.
Coco: Maybe jealous is lots of kinds of feelings.
Lola: Daddy used one of my toys and I was so frustrated, and I wanted to use it first but he wouldn’t let it go.
Teacher Susan: Were you feeling jealous then?
Lola: nods yes.
Like in our earlier explorations with photography and line drawings, the children found themselves confronted with personal experiences where the word ‘sad’ or ‘mad’ was too limited in its ability to fully express their idea and emotion. Expanding their vocabulary while working in the visual medium of watercolor has offered opportunities to represent a complexity of their feelings. Noticing the way one color, which represented an emotion, connected or mixed with another seemed to help them articulate individual experiences with more nuance. In order to build our expressive vocabulary, we will bring in another material to make these more complex emotions visible, and deepen our classroom discussions. -Teacher Jessica