Teaching Emotional Literacy Through the Action–Feeling Connection

This professional development session introduces educators to a practical framework for strengthening emotional literacy, self-awareness, and kindness in early childhood settings. Participants will explore the connection between children’s actions and their emotional experiences, learn developmentally appropriate language to support emotional articulation and boundary-setting, and examine strategies for embedding these practices into daily classroom routines. The session emphasizes immediately usable tools, reflection prompts, and observable outcomes that support positive classroom culture and healthy relationships.

Competency Domain(s): Child Growth, Development and Learning; Social Emotional Health and Development Promotion; Teaching Practices

Makaylee Schill-Bullard is the creator of the Healthy Bonds Curriculum (HBC), a developmentally sequenced social-emotional learning framework designed to help students build emotional literacy, self-awareness, and healthy relationship skills. Her work focuses on the practical connection between actions and feelings, with an emphasis on clear language, boundary-setting, and observable student growth. HBC is currently being developed for pilot implementation in elementary classrooms,…