Chances are that your 2-year-old has a lot of feelings – and expressing those feelings isn’t always easy.
These simple activities are a great way to spend quality time with your child – and will help her or him learn about feelings and about ways to express those feelings.
Emotion Rollercoasters
Materials You Will Need: paper plates, felt pens
What To Do:
As your child experiences emotions, this fun activity may help him or her attribute a name to each feeling.
Draw faces on white paper plates, each one expressing a different feeling: scared, sleepy, glad, mad, etc.
As you read with your child today, pull out the appropriate paper plate face showing the corresponding emotion felt by the characters in the book. Hold the paper plate up to your face and talk about the feeling. Mimic the face yourself and have your child do the same. “How do you look when you’re sad?”
Variations:
You can use the paper plate faces during times your child shows a similar emotion.
Take photos of your child expressing the emotions and place on the plate.
Special People
Materials You Will Need: photos
What To Do:
Children need special people in their lives that care about them.
Place photos of the special people in your child’s life that care on a bulletin board. Put the person’s name under each picture.
Let your child know each day that these people care for him or her! This will help your child to understand the feelings of love and caring.
Expressing Emotions
Materials You Will Need: 2 wooden spoons, permanent felt pens
What To Do:
It is healthy for children to express emotions in a healthy way.
Locate three wooden spoons and draw faces depicting: happy, sad, and mad. You and your child may want to decorate the spoons with hair, a mustache, a tie, or an outfit.
Have the spoons in a convenient place for your child. Encourage your child to share emotions with the spoons that match what they are feeling.
Want more? Visit Productive Parenting for more than 60 activities that will teach your child about feelings – from birth to age 5. While you’re there, become a member (for free) and have activities emailed to you based on the developmental age of your child. Activities build on one another from infancy to age five to provide a solid foundation for learning and, at the same time, promote lasting parent-child relationships.
You can also find Anna at My Life and Kids.
Thank you anna for your wooden spoon idea, we will be having a fun day at school and this activity to do with children is great…