Lesson in a Nutshell

While teaching a kindergarten class a lesson on understanding feelings and why that's important, a "fortuitous accident" occurred, and it summed up the lesson nicely. I had just finished teaching the children 3 clues for understanding how others feel. Look at face, body, what's going on. We discussed reading facial expressions, body language, and the events happening around us. We also discussed how understanding feelings helps us be a good friend. Since the students had been listening and focusing impressively for a while, we all stood up and bounced around to get our wiggles out. The rhythmic chant we repeated over and over as we jumped was, "Face, Body, What's going on!" Well while I was hopping around, a couple of charms fell off my bracelet. Immediately kindergartners of all shapes and sizes dropped to their knees in an effort to retrieve the runaway baubles. As soon as this mission was accomplished, they crowded around me, passing out hugs and condolences. Realizing that this was exactly what we'd been learning about, I squealed with excitement.
"Hey Y'all!" I exclaimed. "Look what's going on! This is what our lesson is teaching us!"
A tawny haired girl blurted, "Yea! We looked at face, body, what's going on, and we could tell you were sad.
"And what did you do?" I asked.
"We helped you find your charms and gave you a hug."
"And why did you do that?" I continued.
"Because we wanted to be a good friend!" they enthused.
And that, my friends, was our lesson in a nutshell! I'd say that the charm bracelet mishap had perfect timing!