Idle Hour Elementary School

Each Monday at Idle Hour, Ms. Prinz introduces a new emotion to her first grade class. She begins with an emotion check-in, then presents the featured emotion and reads a related book to help students understand it. 

Together, the class discusses strategies for recognizing and building positive emotions. For example, turning anger into calm by taking deep breaths, shifting their mindset or talking to someone they trust.

Students also share moments when they have experienced the emotion of the week, helping them make real-life connections. They then reflect further by writing about it in their emotion journals.