No Barbies For Me!

Today, we had a birthday boy in one of my kindergarten guidance classes. Our lesson included looking at pictures of children exhibiting a variety of feelings, labeling those feelings, and classifying each as comfortable or uncomfortable . Our clues were to notice the pictured child's face, his body language, and what was going on around him, the context. Coming to a picture of a girl opening a present and showing big wide eyes and an open mouth, the children correctly figured out that she felt surprised. "Is this a comfortable surprise or an uncomfortable one?" I asked. "Comfortable," the children said. "Yes, this is a comfortable surprise, but sometimes surprises can be uncomfortable, such as when a field trip to the zoo gets rained out at the last minute." Immediately, the excited birthday boy piped up from the back of the group, "Or when somebody gives you a Barbie doll for your birthday!" I cracked up as the other boys moaned and groaned at the horror of such a thing happening. Let's just hope that this is one uncomfortable surprise our birthday boy didn't have to deal with today!