Teachers can use Emotionary as a daily warm-up activity. Project different emotions from your iPad with the pre-loaded faces and talk with kids about what faces look like when they're happy, sad, or mad. Teachers can also use the app as a daily warm-up activity and let kids move at their own pace. As students are entering their diary notes, teachers can work one-on-one with struggling writers. Depending on the setup of a classroom, students may have to take turns when using the microphone feature.
Continue readingEditor's Note: Emotionary by Me.Mu is no longer available.
Emotionary by Me.Mu is an easy-to-use app that can help kids identify their feelings through a variety of mediums. It's helpful to work with kids as they begin using this app. Kids may need verbal prompting as they begin to understand what an emotion may look like. Enter a child's information under "add a student" to begin adding diary entries. First, kids choose from a list of six emotions to describe how they're feeling today. On the next screen, they get four visual prompts: a camera to take a picture representing how they feel; a microphone to record "I feel ________ because"; an open book to search the device for photos that explain why they feel that way; and a keyboard to write about their feeling. Kids can view their entries to reflect on how they felt on different days.
Kids can learn how to identify how they're feeling by using visuals. Helping kids understand their emotions is an integral part of their learning social skills and empathy. Kids may need verbal prompting as they begin to understand what an emotion may look like. The camera feature allows you to take a picture of your child to visually reinforce the identification and understanding of the emotion he or she may be feeling. If your child is verbal, you can have her use the built-in microphone to record why she's feeling a certain way. Kids who may not be able to verbally express themselves may be able to use the keyboard.
Emotionary by Me.Mu is a simple daily-diary tool that can help kids gain a better understanding of emotions. This easy-to-use app is, on the whole, a good way for kids to learn how they feel in different situations. Using a daily diary entry can help your child and you identify behavior patterns and what makes your child feel a certain way. The built-in feeling images could be enhanced by using both genders and more diversity, and it would be great if the feelings could have an auditory component so kids hear the emotion as well as see it. The app also would benefit from a mini-tutorial to help parents who are new to this type of tool help kids identify their feelings.