Really…How are you feeling? When was the last time you checked in on yourself? As adults, we may have to navigate a variety of emotions on a daily basis, sometimes even pretending things are going well when we are having a rough day. Even though little, our children can have big emotions just like us, and as parents and educators, one of our jobs is to help them navigate those feelings. Using the book, Glad Monster, Sad Monster by Ed Emberley and song Feelings and Emotions, children can learn more about how they are feeling. Through the story and the song, children learn what kinds of things affect the monster’s feelings, the color that “matches” that feeling, and the visual expressions and behavior that may accompany certain feelings: sad, happy, silly, embarrassed, scared, angry, worried. 

After listening to the story, continue the exploration of emotions with a few hands-on activities that tap into the multiple modalities your children use to learn.

• Playdough Emotions: Use playdough and beads to practice making different feeling faces on paper plates
• Read and explore: The Feelings Book by Todd Parr, another engaging book to teach feelings to little ones.
• Monster Coloring: Color and identify how the monster is feeling
• When do you feel…?
• During this activity, snap pictures of your child portraying different feelings: HAPPY, SAD, ANGRY and PROUD. 

Identifying, recognizing, and labeling feelings and emotions can be a difficult topic for young children to grasp, as these concepts are abstract.  For continued reading on how to navigate big and small feelings, please refer to this article.