A Really Bad Headache

In kindergarten guidance classes this week, we're learning how to tell how people feel by looking at face, body, and what's going on. We're also learning the difference in comfortable and uncomfortable feelings. Well, as part of the lesson, I read a book full of beautiful pictures of a variety of feelings. Children are to look at facial, body, and context clues to figure out how characters feel, and then we decide whether each is a comfortable or uncomfortable feeling. One of the pages depicted a silly girl who was bouncing up and down with glee. The children said that silly was a comfortable feeling. In order to make them broaden their thinking, I talked about how silly can become an uncomfortable feeling if we feel it in the wrong context and have to control it. For example, I asked, "What if we feel really giggly in church but know we need to stay calm and still?  Then it would become uncomfortable."  Hearing the word church, a cute freckle-faced blond boy held his whole face in his hands, looked down, shook his head, and in a pained voice said, "Yeah, like when Pastor Wood gives you a REALLY bad headache." I cracked up!