My Feelings Book
Use pictures to give examples of what different feelings can look like.
Setup
0-5 minutes
Time required
10-15 minutes
Materials
Magazine pictures showing different emotional expressions, paper, safety scissors and glue.
How to Play
As you look at magazines, talk about the faces that you see. Encourage your child to cut them out and paste them onto paper. Put the papers together into a book. This can be really simple by stapling the pages together. When it is done, sit down with your child to look at the book you created together and talk about the different pictures. Your child can make up stories about the pictures and why they are feeling different emotions. Talking about different emotions together will help your child understand their feelings. After a few pages take a look at them together so you get a chance to talk about them. You can keep adding to the book and going back to other pictures to talk about them again.
Some Tips
When an emotion like anger or sadness is shown, talk about different things the person can do to help them with their feelings. This can give you and your child ideas of what can help him/her when they feel sad or mad. You can also use pictures you have of your child and family members.
Make it Easier
Start by cutting out pictures of simple emotions (i.e. happy, sad).
Make it Harder
Have your child put together the pictures to tell a story about the emotions in the picture or have your child tell a story about a time when they felt the emotion identified in the picture. Add more complex emotions such as disappointed, frustrated, excited, etc. Introduce how your body sometimes feels with different emotions (e.g. when you’re angry maybe your face gets red; when you’re scared, your heart races, you cry).
Reference
Adapted from Chudler, E. Neuroscience For Kids - Memory Experiments. University of Washington, Faculty.washington.edu.
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