Kate Martin: Now is going to be your time to be really creative, to give your puppet personality. What might their voice be?

Kate Martin: Puppets help create a low-stakes environment for kids where they all feel comfortable to talk about their feelings, to come out of their shell a little bit. But it also creates, like, a really fun, exciting environment where the kids interact with each other, interact with me, and really take some risks.

Boy: I felt really awesome when I did belly breathing.

Principal Eben Jones: When I first got here six years ago, there was a real focus on academic achievement and closing the gap, but there wasn’t really a focus on social and emotional wellness. Many students in our community have experienced some kind of trauma, and I think everybody benefits from understanding this role that your own emotional intelligence can play in your ability to learn.

Kate Martin: All right, so friends, today we are going to learn about another one of our strategies.

Kate Martin: We are participating in a partnership with the University of Connecticut to implement the Feel Your Best Self social-emotional learning program that teaches 12 different strategies through work with puppets.

Kate Martin: So we’re going to start off this morning with one of our videos, with our puppet friends.

Kate Martin: And so each of the strategies has a video. The puppets introduce strategies for each other to help them deal with what we call heavy feelings, so feelings that make you feel kind of weighed down, like embarrassment or sadness.

Emily Wicks: You could go into a classroom and easily tell someone how to belly-breathe, but isn’t it a little more fun to allow these puppet friends to show kind of their daily struggles and how they teach each other these different strategies? We really tried to make situations that they find themselves in, that kids might find themselves in.

Mohamad: Nico, he made a tower, but it fell down, so he was feeling some heavy feelings and maybe some sad feelings. C.J. tried to help him and taught him belly breathing. You put your two hands on your tummy, take a deep breath, count to five, and then take all of that breath away, and you might feel calm.

Kate Martin: You can put one hand or both—

Kate Martin: We always show the strategy with the video, and then we have them practice the strategy themselves.

Kate Martin: So can somebody tell me about a time that they had a heavy feeling that they wished that they had had this strategy to—

Boy: My cousin pushed me and I got mad.

Kate Martin: And so do you think belly breathing would have helped you calm down?

Boy: <Nods>

Kate Martin: All right. So now, friends, what we’re going to do is we’re actually going to build our own puppets.

Kate Martin: We did our puppet workshop today where we built our puppets that then can become that proxy for students to be able to talk about their feelings and practice some of these strategies.

Emily Wicks: Kids take a kit. They get to create their own character. That does create a sense of ownership. It’s not just staying on the screen, it’s they are now the puppeteers.

Girl: I added eyeballs. I started a nose. Two hairs—one is yellow and one is blue.

Alenys: I like making her hair because I could decorate it and put a lot of things on it.

Kate Martin: Take a deep breath in to fill the belly with air.

Emily Wicks: And then lastly, the kids do the strategying with their puppets. The strategies, they’re grouped into three categories. There’s calm yourself, giving kids strategies to self-soothe; catch your feelings, which promotes self-awareness; and also connect with others, focusing on social relationships and encouraging acts of kindness.

Daniel Lastra-Mercado: <Speaks Spanish>

Emily Wicks: Today you saw Brinna high-five.

Samantha: In the video, a boy came back from the dentist, and his friend gave him a high five.

Daniel Lastra-Mercado: <Speaks Spanish>

Boy: <Speaks Spanish>

Daniel Lastra-Mercado: <Speaks Spanish>

Daniel Lastra-Mercado: The kids are able to create their own high five.

Daniel Lastra-Mercado: <Speaks Spanish>

Daniel Lastra-Mercado: Using something that they crafted themselves makes them feel comfortable, and most of them who normally don’t participate, they were willing to participate to show how they come up with this new, just tried this new high five.

Emily Wicks: Puppetry really allows you to bring down some barriers that exist between teachers and students, between students and other students. It allows for improved communication skills.

Principal Eben Jones: All of this social-emotional work is as important as the academic work. You’ll be able to spend more time on task, and there will be less conflict because students are having a deeper understanding of their own emotional intelligence. You’ve got to understand how you’re feeling to be able to feel better.

Natchaug Elementary School

How Puppets Can Help Kids Express Emotions