All About Emotions

By PJ Martin

Editor

The Herald-News

 

The Metcalfe County Public Library held another entertaining event last Wednesday at the Bowling Park gym.

The program was called “Miss September and Friends,” and it included lots of energy with magic, music, dancing, and lots of movement for the kids.

She began by telling the kids that she had sprinkled pixie dust all over the place to make magic work there. She asked them to wiggle their fingers to make magic tricks work.

September and her assistant Sophie used lots of bright colored props, books, big hats, twirlie ribbons, big giant crayons, and magic tricks, all while talking to the kids about emotions and how to deal with them. She even does a little ventriloquism with Indigo (puppet) while interacting with the kids.

September Cardiff, who has been performing for children for 28 years, has written three children’s books, with the latest entitled “Colors”. The performance was based on the latest book.

In Colors, Indigo the parrot has a lot of mixed-up and confusing emotions, or as September describes it, a Rainbow of Feeling. He feels jealousy, sadness, happiness, etc. To better explain the various emotions to her young audience, each emotion is represented by a color. For example, red is happy, blue is sad, green is calm, and purple is strong. That’s what she calls the rainbow of feelings.

In the show, she talks to the kids about how it’s okay to feel more than one emotion at a time. Indigo finds out that it’s okay to feel emotions, and with help from his friends, that the emotions can be worked through. She helped the kids understand, put a name to, and navigate their feelings.

Between each segment of the performance, September asked everyone to stand up, picked some of the kids (and parents) to twirl the ribbons, and they danced to music. She even had a song they all sang to the hoky-poky music as they put their left leg out in a chicken dance.

This is a very energetic and fun-loving way for kids to learn about different emotions and how to deal with them.

September Cardiff is an author, entertainer, and public speaker who uses her skills in magic, puppetry, and storytelling to entertain children while also educating them. She has a background in education and performs shows for libraries, schools, and churches on subjects such as literacy, anti-bullying, and recycling.