My husband and I regularly discuss with our daughters how to recognize, manage, and express emotions. It is really important to give children the proper vocabulary to express themselves. At times, children may not fully understand what they are feeling, or why they are feeling that way, and this can leave them feeling extremely frustrated. To help strengthen my daughters emotional vocabulary, I created a feelings board for them.
When introducing the feelings board to my daughters, I asked them to describe a time they experienced each emotion on the board. We then discussed different strategies we have used in the past, and strategies we could use in the future when experiencing specific emotions. We wrote each of these strategies down on popsicle sticks, and put them in a mason jar right by the emotions board. This way, they are easily accessible when we need them.
How To Use The Feelings Board:
Each morning my daughters will put a clip with their name on it, on the emotion they are feeling. If I see a shift in behavior, I will guide them over to the board and help them figure out what they are feeling, and we will move their clip to that emotion. We will then discuss why they are experiencing that emotion and if needed, we will pick a strategy from our mason jar. Once we have worked through whatever it was they were experiencing, they will get to move their clip back to the emotion that reflects how they are now feeling.
What You’ll Need:
Cardboard ( we recycled a box)
Markers
Ribbon
Tape
Scissors
Corkboard
How To:
Cut out your feeling faces out of cardboard. Draw different faces to represent whatever feelings you are working on with your child. Curl the ribbon and tape it to the back of the head and pull a piece over to the front to show the hair.
I would like to share that the inspiration for the look of my little characters comes from @mummyandthebears. I was scrolling through Instagram and saw that she made these adorable smiley faced “hairdo heads”, as she calls them, and I knew I had to find a way to recreate them for our feelings board.
I hope you found this helpful. If you give this feelings board a try, comment down below. I would love to hear how it is working for your family.
*Adult supervision is required*
In a few months my nieces and nephew will be entering into Kindergarten. I can’t believe how big they are getting. I wanted to create a craft they could do to review their letters/sounds before their first day of school.
What You’ll Need:
Two Paper plates
Round stickers
Blue and brown construction paper
Green paint
Paint brush
Pen
Hot glue gun
How To:
- Cut out the center part of the paper plates and save the edge.
- Cut the edges of the paper plates into 6 pieces. You will have left over.
- Paint the edges of the paper plate green. These will be the leaves. Set aside to dry.
- Cut a strip of brown construction paper. Fold it several times, flipping it back and fourth, and glue the top and bottom part to the blue construction paper.
- Cut out three round circles out of the brown construction paper. They will be the coconuts.
- An adult can now use a hot glue to attach the leaves to the blue paper. Arrange them as seen above.
- Glue the coconuts to the center of the leaves.
- Write every letter of the alphabet onto your round stickers and have your child place them on the leaves while saying their name and sound.
I really hope my nieces and nephew enjoy this activity. Can’t wait to see what they make!
*Adult supervision is required*