Emotional Intelligence Activity on the Glass-Bottomed Boat

Welcome aboard Glass-Bottomed Seafarers!

Jump on to a trip of diving inside of your emotional intelligence in the glass-bottomed boat. This adventure will be centered around learning deep inside of your EQ (emotional quotient) for children that fits into the early childhood ages of 3 through 6 years old. 

Your journey will begin with the sight of a four-year-old autistic little girl name Empathi. Empathi is in love with all things marine life and prefers to stay alone at the bottom of the boat where she can lay down on the glass flat on her stomach to gaze upon the many aquatics wonders the ocean life has in store for both her and us all.

Learn more about how emotional intelligence is interpreted and practice you EQ skills when you observe the unique emotions Empathi and the marine life she is observing are experiencing throughout the trip on the glass-bottomed boat!

There are 5 key skills in emotional intelligence that you will need to discover to uncover the unique feelings and emotions Empathi and the marine life are feeling throughout the moments on the glass-bottomed boat trip.

1) Go to the website: Nurturing Emotional Intelligence in Children (scienceofmind.org) to uncover the following answers to:

1a) What are the 5 skills in interpreting emotional abilities?

1b) What are the purposes for each of the 5 skills you just listed?

Great! Before we lead you into more of the deeper ends of this emotional intelligence journey, there is just one more thing that needs to be remembered before you begin to practice your EQ skills with Empathi and the marine life. 

2) Go to the website: Nurturing Neurodiversity-Affirming Social and Emotional Skills in School-Aged Children - Elizabeth Sautter to fill in the blanks for the following questions to:

2a) ____________ before ______________.

2b) Encourage them to _________, ____________, and _____________ individuals who share their values and exhibit kindness.

2c) _________ ____________ with them who resonate with their unique experiences and perspectives.

Sweet! Now that you're all set and familiar with ways you can gain and how to interpret emotional intelligence, now it is time to test your skills when you observe Empathi and the marine life creatures on the glass-bottomed boat! Write down your EQ analyses on your feelings journal for the following questions:

3) Empathi's feet pounded down in a hurry when she enters down the basement to where the entire room was made out of glass in observance of the beauty of marine life. She is breathing heavily as her cheeks turn red as her head felt like spinning with tears streaming across her face as her hands squeezes tight on the texture of the orange life vest she always wears for comfort. 

Analyze: What kind of emotions do you believe Empathi is feeling?

4) As Empathi's feet pounded down in the floor of the glass-bottomed boat, the school of fish of many unique sizes decided to scatter out of the way as her feet stomped and decided to avoid that part of the glass-bottomed boat altogether in order to not be around the noisy vibration of that atmosphere. They begin to hide in the tiny areas of sea corals in a chance that it was a hungry sea monster attempting to attack them.

Analyze: What kind of emotions do you believe the school of fish are feeling?

5) After Empathi decided to listen back to the advice of her own emotional intelligence teacher, Ms. Oonnis, she decided to control her breathing by taking one big breath in, and then grab her stomach as she lets all that big air out. This technique helped her clear her mind as she can now focus on the environment around her and the beauty of the undersea life.

Analyze: What kind of emotions do you believe Empathi is feeling?

6) As Empathi gets mesmerized by the undersea life, she has gotten to experience how the creatures of the sea interact with each other. One example is when a mother dolphin uses echolocation to find her lost calf. Once the two reunited with each other, they engage in physical contact with each other through the calf getting under the mother's belly as they flap their flippers together in what can be seen as the human equivalent of hugging.

Analyze: What kind of emotions do you believe the dolphins are feeling?

7) As Empathi was mesmerized by the undersea beauty as she looks deep in the bottom of the glass-bottomed boat, her best friend, Wyse slowly came into the glassed basement room just to check on her. His face has a jumpy frown as he gave out a little scream on all of the marine creatures, he felt were ganging up on him. 

Analyze: What kind of emotions do you believe Wyse is feeling?

8) Empathi, seeing how Wyse feels once he enters the room, decided to look away from the marine life just to give him a wide closed-mouth smile as she stood up from laying down on her stomach to walk up to Wyse to guide him deeper and deeper into the glassed basement area of the glass-bottomed boat through holding his hands and walking with him. Once the two reached to a comfortable spot, Empathi and Wyse lay on their stomachs together as they continue to hold each other's hands and stare deeply mesmerized at the deep blue sea.

Analyze: What kind of emotions do you believe Empathi and Wyse are feeling?

BONUS) After this activity on testing your skills of emotional intelligence on the glass-bottomed boat,

What kind of emotions are YOU feeling towards this activity and story?

Collect all of your answers and interpretations on the emotions you interpreted on your feelings journal to be evaluated by me:

89 points total | 100 points total w/ BONUS question







 

Congratulations, Glass-Bottomed Seafarers, on following through a sneak peek draft of a novel that I dream of creating someday for a younger audience called "Glass-Bottomed Boat"! (Learn more about the story in the teacher page section). 

Thank you for following this emotional intelligence journey with Empathi, Wyse, and the rest of the sea life. I hope you had fun testing your skills in your feelings journal, as the final quote I will give to you to remember from one of your webpages is:

"Neurodiversity-affirming practices in childhood create a ripple effect of empathy, respect, and understanding that extends well into adulthood" ~ Elizabeth Sautter

Kellot, T. (2024, October 22). Nurturing emotional intelligence in children. Science of mind. https://scienceofmind.org/children-and-emotional-intelligence/

Nurturing neurodiversity-affirming social and emotional skills in school-aged children. Elizabeth Sautter. (2024a, May 22). https://elizabethsautter.com/nurturing-neurodiversity-affirming-social-…

Hello class! My name is Britney Hill, and I love writing and storytelling ever since I began writing stories as a kid, and as of right now, I have dreams off publishing one of my stories out to the world in hopes to spread a positive message one day.

I am autistic which makes me come off as really quiet as I have a hard time forming any permanent social interactions, but I do succeed well academically.

In my first year of college, I went to Eastern Michigan University to major in psychology, but once I ended up getting slightly insulted by how one of the exam questions from my study guide in my general psychology course was related to how people on the autism spectrum lack emotional intelligence along with other things that happened to me at that university in which I do not wish to speak about, I ended up transferring to Central Michigan University to major in early childhood development and learning. 

What impacted this decision of mine more thoroughly is when I was at my high school senior walk-through where the seniors will go over to their elementary school with their cap and gown just to inspire other kids who were once like us to see who they will grow up to be. 

I could never forget what I still considers till this day to be one of the most emotional moments of my life which is when I saw my elementary school office, taking me back to the days when I was lower on the spectrum during my early days and so whenever I would get in trouble, I would always have to sit in the office, counting the pastel yellowish-white and blue tiles that were underneath me, until my parents came to pick me up. There was just something about looking back at that moment, and then seeing the type of person I grow up to be today, that just sparks this enlightenment of inspiration that pursued me in the desire of helping little children who were once just like me.

The following activity is inspired by a neurodiversity story I am in the works of writing someday, which compared to all my other stories this one target more towards a younger audience, called, "Glass-Bottomed Boat." As you can probably tell from the activity, the basic synopsis of "Glass-Bottomed Boat" focuses on a four-year-old autistic girl name Empathi who wears an orange life-vest all the time for comfort and the enjoyment of squeezing the texture for any high emotional moments, and she is in love with marine life and finds true solace in just separating herself from the other kids by going at the bottom of the mini-cruise ship and experiencing the beauty of symbolically looking deeper through a surface that uncovers the many beauties from others that no one once saw before. Friendship is also another theme in this story with a kind and curious boy name Wyse who is always so curious about the world that his parents got him a journal called, "The Journal of Infinite Wonders", to keep up with his many inquiries, have decided to befriend Empathi who pushed him out of his comfort zone when he decided to look at the sea life with her despite being afraid of fish. To sum it up, the two main themes for the story of "Glass-Bottomed Boat" that I based this activity on is neurodiversity and friendship.

I hope you have fun and enjoy this activity!

~ Britney Hill