Learning about emotions is such an important part of early years education. Children aged 2 to 5 need plenty of play to do with emotion and how we can express ourselves in healthy ways.
Here I have put together a range of resources and provocations to help students explore emotions, and a brief review based on my own prep class.
Book based provocations:
❤️'The colour monster' + paintchips = our class feelings rainbow. They LOVED this and it was an excellent start to our look at emotion. All they had to do was choose one colour that represented an emotion for them. Our class TA and I wrote what they said on their paint chip, then I added the colours to pages as a rainbow. I added one yellow piece to finish the rainbow. I colour photocopied this for the students' portfolios. I wrote their name on the paint chip/s they chose so their parents can see which one they chose.
❤️ 'Mr. Huff' and 'The bad mood & the stick.' My class asked to have these read again, and 5 weeks on I still had children in the class looking at Mr. Huff. It really resonated with them. The watercolour feelings clouds were a beautiful representation of the feelings each child felt.
❤️ 'In my heart,' the feelings books, and 'My silent world,' were other books we read. We had a class set of books I borrowed from the local library, which had an entire section dedicated to books about feelings!
Other activities:
❤️ Feelings eggs & paint chip colour matching. There was disagreement between some students as to which colours matched which faces. It was interesting listening to their discussions. Purple in particular was not agreed upon. All saw pink and yellow as happy, 'comfortable,' and 'cosy' colours. Most (except one child) saw blue as a sad colour. Black was a scary colour for them.
❤️ Emotion cards & play dough 🙌 Soooo much discussion at this table. Picklebums have free downloadable resources including these face outlines perfect for play dough feelings faces. I found the monster faces free as a download after I joined the
mailing list of 'Counselor Kerri.'
❤️ Calm rice, and uplifting rice. This is just rice coloured with food colouring, and essential oils added. This is an activity for children well past the eating-sensory-materials stage. Note that I have not added buckets of rice here. A cup or two in each of these Kmart trays is plenty to keep two children happy. I used Young Living lavender and lemon oils. If you are interested in purchasing oils from someone who is a no pressure leader (I frankly don't have the time or desire to hound people, but am here for advice and help) contact me via my instagram Where Heart Meets Home account.
❤️ Emotion puppets from paint chip skin tone circles with pop sticks. An absolute winner. A circle craft punch was used to cut the circles. Sharpies worked best on the paint chips to create faces, and PVA glue was used to stick them on.
❤️ Painting as a class - a whole table painting: free expression of our emotions.
❤️ Emotional response to music: We listened to Flight of the bumblebee, drawing what we felt while listening, then listened to Cannon in D and did the same. I ended up recording their words onto their picture for the last one as their responses were so intense and beautiful, and a child even cried. Every class should do this! It really helped them make a connection to how things around us can affect the way we feel. The class then had a go at painting in response to back ground music the following week.
❤️ Feelings puzzles. There are plenty of face puzzles available. I liked this simple puzzle found on the same site as the monster feelings cards.
❤️ Taking individual photos of the whole class showing different ‘feelings faces’ then compiling onto one page for reference.
❤️ “I feel happy when....” picture.
❤️Dramatic play with wooden peg dolls. Adding a feelings prompt on the wall close by would be great, but even having this set up at the same time as some of the other activities will lead to dramatic play with a feelings focus. Peg dolls like these nins are perfect because there are no faces. The child decides how the doll is feeling.
❤️Calm dough. Play dough infused with essential oils, such as lavender, with loose parts, rollers and cutters are a great feelings acitivty.
❤️Water play. Simple water play, with discussions on how water makes us feel.
❤️Loose parts feelings faces. Round cork boards or placemats turned upside down are the perfect base for children to create faces. Prompt cards and mirrors can be helpful for this activity.
Additional resources:
The creative toy shop recent monthly subscription box contained an array of items perfectly geared to starting discussions about emotion. Their “Grow” emotion cards would be great as a starting point, along with the puzzle (Libby loved this). Calming play dough and the very loved magnetic face board were excellent additions. All of these items would be suitable for home or classroom use.
The thing they found the most exciting though, was something I was a bit unsure of at first. I went with my gut and did it anyway. With our exploration of culture, storytelling and expression, I have had students asking questions about the different ways building have been made and designed in different countries. Groups had attempted to make tall towers that they had seen, but wanted to see more. So I played a very simple YouTube clip that contained 100 still photos of landmarks found around the world. I was not prepared for the strength of their response!! It was incredible! They were all talking at once, discussing which were man made, and what they were made from. It was LOUD! And I loved it! They were so very excited! The focused play, involving incredible collaboration, and perseverance when their plans failed, that occurred afterwards was amazing. It was one of those days all teachers should have the chance to experience, and I was so grateful in that moment for the freedom to experience it.
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