Lockdown Learning: Teaching Emotions

As a 3 year old (AKA the threenager), Billy goes through many emotions in a single day. From happy and giggly to tired and frustrated and sometimes even a little mad the new fond foot stomp has made an appearance quite often of late)! So I thought it would be a good time to start exploring emotions, how we can determine which emotion we are feeling and how to embrace or tackle said emotion.

I wanted to do this in a fun way and to also tick off one of the homeschooling boxes at the same time. These activities were fun and really helped Billy understand the emotions he was starting to experience. It also helped me to find out why he might feel certain emotions, the one that came up most was "I feel mad when I can't eat choc choc before dinner"... umm such a hard life our little ones lead!

Play Doh Emotions

This activity was so much fun and only required stuff we already had in the playroom. Billy was super excited for this one as he loves plays doh and I loved how excited he was when he followed the guided lines and created his very own emotions.

What you'll need;

• Computer and printer (optional)

• Paper

• Pen

• Play Dough

Method;

1. On a sheet of paper, draw four faces with eyes relating to the emotions you wish to discover. We created one on the computer that we could print, but it's just as easy to draw them yourself. If you do want to use our template, you can download it here.

2. Once you have drawn your "emotions" it's time to open the lids to the play doh. With Billy, I wanted to guide him through each emotion, so I drew the mouths in dotted lines for him to use as a guideline, but if you feel confident your child could create their own mouth (e.g. smile, frown) using the doh, then go for it.

3. Let your child soften the play doh and explain that you want them to create the expression they think the emotion would show. We went for happy, sad, scared and angry, but you can use any em options you like.

4. You'll both have fun creating the play doh mouths as you talk through each emotion.

2: Flour Balloon Emotions

In this house we have a lot of balloons so using balloons for an activity was a no brainer, and this activity was once again, easy to make and not only helped. Billy discovered new emotions, but this also doubled up as a great little keepsake that kept him happy for the rest of the morning. He named all of his balloon friends and played with them all morning.

What you'll need;

• Balloons

• Flour or rice

• A filter (if you have one)

• Marker pen

Method;

1. Select a balloon and using a funnel pour in a decent amount of flour. You are not going to be inflating your balloon so you need enough to ensure the balloon has a good shape. Once you feel happy with the filling, squeeze out any access air and tie the balloon.Repeat step 1 on all the balloons (as many as you like).

2. Take your marker pen and draw on expressions, showing as many different emotions as you can. Billy decided to draw tears on the sad balloon. If you want you can stick on googley eyes and even string to create funky hair for each character.

3. Have fun going through each balloon and learning the emotions. I asked Billy to show me what face he would pull for each of our emotions; angry, happy, sad and scared. His facial expressions were too funny so I had to share them with you all below.

4. I should also warn you, as the last image shows, this little activity can get quite messy!!

Our new "emotions family" are still going strong, be it with smudged faces now, but we're still having so much fun with them. Billy decided to put on a show with them which was extremely entertaining to watch! I explained to Billy that they can be used to squeeze if he ever feels frustrated by something, rather than crying out or shouting, he can squeeze his emotion family and they will help to take the feeling away - I must admit I have also been finding our new found stress balls quite helpful this past few weeks!!

3: Emotion Sticks

Being able to interpret facial expressions is something that I really want Billy to gain an understanding of, to be sure that if he see's someone sad, he can try to make them smile, or if he see's someone happy, he too can smile and join in their moment of joy. So this activity was a great way and reiterating the different emotions with him. As we help the masks to our faces, we went through some scenarios of why we might be feeling that way, for example; his friend fell over in the playground and that made him cry, or daddy cleaned the house for mummy for the first time in 6 years, and that made mummy happy :0) - Ok so I may have added that one myself, but seriously, I would be overjoyed with that little turn out!

What you'll need;

• Coloured card or paper

• Straws or lolly sticks

• Pen or pencils

• Glue or sellotape

Method;

1. Cut your coloured card or paper into large circles

2. Draw a different emotion on each circle

3. Glue or sellotape a straw or lolly stick to the back of the card

4. Have fun running through different scenarios and after each one ask your child to hold up the correct emotion flag.

We had lots of fun thinking up different "emotion stories" and I was surprised at how well Billy already seemed to know most of the emotions and how quickly he started to pick up on how to recognise each one. We have continued to use our emotion sticks now to help also understand any emotional outburst we have, such as falling to the floor and crying over not being allowed cookies before dinner (such a mean mummy I am)!

That's a wrap, we really hope you enjoyed reading this and even more importantly are looking forward to trying these out with your little ones. If you do, please do leave us a comment or tag us in any pics on IG @raindropznroses - we love seeing your creations. And as always...keep going, your doing great!

"It's ok if you fall apart sometimes, Tacos fall apart and we still love them"

Until next time Raindropz, stay safe and keep smiling.

Nikki and Claire xxx