Use The Emotion Thermometer In The Classroom

Working with emotional intelligence from the first years of life is important for children to develop properly. Both at home and at school, parents and teachers must teach children to identify, express and understand their feelings and thoughts. Fortunately, today there are many useful educational resources to achieve this. For example, teachers can use the use of the thermometer in the classroom.

Do you want to know what this activity consists of and how to put it into practice in the classroom? Here we will tell you everything you need to know.

Use the emotion thermometer to teach about emotional intelligence

The emotion thermometer is a very simple and visual educational resource. Children, even the youngest, can understand the analogy of the temperature marked in a thermometer and the intensity of the emotions they themselves feel.

By using the emotion thermometer in the classroom, which is divided into different colored parts, children can then identify their own state of mind. They can show if they feel very happy, happy, calm, nervous, upset, sad or even angry.

Therefore, it is a fun and excellent educational resource that works with basic emotions in the classroom, especially with the following students:

• The youngest children in preschool
• From the first years of primary school
• Children who have difficulty communicating verbally and expressing and recognizing their own and others’ feelings, such as children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Steps to use the emotion thermometer in the classroom

The first thing you need to do to use the emotion thermometer properly is to put up a picture of a thermometer, either on paper or cardboard, in a visible place in the classroom. Then you should put up a series of pictures or photographs with different faces – faces that clearly represent the different emotional states we can experience.

The teacher must then explain to the students that this is a special type of thermometer. He or she must clarify that it differs from a regular thermometer that is used to measure the temperature, instead it can measure the emotions that you can feel at a certain time during the school day.

How? Very simple. Take a look at these steps:

• At any time during the lesson, a child can ask the teacher for permission to get up from his or her desk and go to the corner of the classroom where the emotional thermometer is, to show him or her how he or she is feeling at the time.
• The child in question should choose the photograph of a face that represents the feeling he or she is experiencing at that very moment. The student can choose between very happy, happy, calm, nervous, upset, sad or angry faces.
• The student should then put this face on the emotion thermometer. The highest temperatures represent intense emotions.

• The teacher should, if he or she deems it appropriate, encourage the student to explain to the rest of the class why the child feels that way.
• The teacher can also participate in the activity in the same way. He or she can lead the way and share their own feelings and emotional states with their students.

Benefits of using the emotion thermometer in the classroom

Setting up an emotion thermometer in the classroom has many benefits, as it allows children to:

• Identify and recognize their own emotional states

• Reflect on the origin of their emotional states
• Regulate and control their emotions
• Understand other people’s feelings, reactions and thoughts
• Actively listen to the experiences of others
• Develop empathy
• Understand that their emotions vary and will change during the day
• Expand your emotional vocabulary

In short, with this simple activity, we can improve children’s interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence. In this way, they can grow up and be made aware of the importance of expressing and understanding their own and others’ feelings.