Exploring Feelings through Poetry: A Social Emotional Learning Lesson

Poetry and social emotional learning go hand in hand!

It's important to give children the time and space to express their own emotions and be in tune to others' emotions. Poetry is a great tool for cultivating this emotional awareness.  

An excellent resource for exploring challenging situations and feelings through poetry is the book Imperfect II: Poems About Perspective. This anthology includes 80 poems by children's poets from around the world. (While the anthology is suggested for middle schoolers, I've used it successfully with students in grades 3 and up.) As the back cover explains, as humans, we tend to "think we're the only person who has had something really embarrassing happen to us, or that a problem we're having will go on forever. When we've lost sight of the big picture, how can we help ourselves put things back in perspective? Poetry can lend a hand."  

I'm honored to have my poem, EMBRACE MISTAKES, included in this anthology. In this poem, I explore an emotion I often feel, especially when I encounter writer's block:

  frustration!!!

EMBRACE MISTAKES 

When you hit a snag and stumble, 

do you feel a grumble rumble? 

When your best plans turn to rubble, 

does your anger start to bubble? 

Does it boil toward a fit? 

Do you want to shout: 

“I QUIT!” 

If a setback’s plaguing you, 

take a b r e a t h, and try this view: 

        Don’t get irate, 

        recalculate. 

        Don’t make a fuss,

        rethink, discuss. 

If you persist and don’t give up, 

at some point you’ll break through. 

A problem’s not a roadblock. 

It’s your path to something new!

-© Michelle Schaub 2022

In EMBRACE MISTAKES, I acknowledge some negative behaviors that tempt me when I'm frustrated, then I offer healthier alternatives to deal with my frustration. After reading my poem with students, we discuss other challenging emotions.  We brainstorm both negative and positive actions we can take when we feel those emotions.  I use this FEELING WHEEL to facilitate the discussion.

Then I invited student to write their own poems that explore ways to turn negative emotional reactions into positive ones. To facilitate the students' poem writing, I created this FEELING POEM TEMPLATE: 

I model how to use the template by sharing a poem I wrote and one written by a group of students. (Both poems are included in the free, downloadable FEELING POEM TEMPLATE:)

When rejection

pours over my head

like an icy bucket of water,

instead of curling into a ball

and shivering,

I'll shake off my doubt

and stand in a warm patch of possibility

and watch rejection

evaporate.

    -Michelle Schaub, 2022

When frustration 

hovers over me 

like a black cloud of gnats, 

instead of yelling, screaming, 

and throwing a fit, 

I’ll swat away my doubts 

and keep calm and keep trying 

and watch frustration

fly away. 

     -Haedyn, Ella, and Lola, 2022

As you look for ways to cultivate emotional awareness among your students, I hope these poetry resources lend a hand! 

Discover even more POETRY BOOST resources HERE,  and don't forget to sign up for the POETRY BOOST newsletter to stay updated on new poetry lessons, prompts, and mentor texts. 

About Michelle Schaub

Michelle Schaub is an educator and award-winning children's poet. She is the author of the picture book poetry collections Fresh-Picked Poetry: A Day at the Farmers’ Market, (which won the 2018 Growing Good Kids Award and 2019 Northern Lights Book Award,) and Finding Treasure: A Collection of Collections. She is also the author of two picture books in verse, the bedtime STEM book Dream Big, Little Scientists and Kindness is a Kite String: The Uplifting Power of Empathy. Her poems appear in several anthologies, including  A World Full of Poems and Hop to It: Poems to Get You Moving.  Michelle loves visiting schools and speaking at conferences on the power of poetry to boost literacy. Find out more at:  https://www.michelleschaub.com/