Awareness of emotions
Toddlers participate in a book sharing on names of different feelings and ways to manage some feelings.
[Invite 3–4 toddlers to read a book with you about different ways we can feel.]
We are learning about different kinds of feelings. Sometimes we feel happy, sometimes we feel sad, and sometimes we feel lonely.
[Show book cover.]
Let’s look at some pictures of children who are having different kinds of feelings.
[Use the following strategies to share the book:
In addition to reading the book text, use your own words to describe an illustration. Point to images you describe.
We can have different kinds of feelings. Do feelings have names? (yes!) We talked about the names of feelings. Our book showed us what some children do about their feelings. We saw a picture of a girl hugging a teddy bear when she felt sad and a picture of a boy looking for something to do when he felt bored. What did some of the other children in our book do about their feelings?
Most toddlers will be familiar with the common feelings featured in this short book but may be uncertain about some feeling names. Being able to put a name or label on how we are feeling is a valuable step in emotion awareness and appropriate responses to feelings. This is a reason for the activity plan’s suggestion that the name of an emotion be mentioned at least twice in discussion of the illustration related to the feeling. Pay attention to signs of toddler familiarity with emotion words and offer definitions as appropriate. Toddlers benefit from hearing similar emotion words, such as frightened/ scared/afraid.
Look for opportunities to talk with toddlers about what we might do when we have a specific feeling. Six of the nine feelings highlighted in the book offer pictures of a child’s response: sad, tired, bored, worried, frightened, and lonely. The pictured child’s response to a feeling can launch a broader discussion of other ways to manage a particular feeling.
Illustrations that depict feeling happy and feeling surprised offer opportunities to continue the Block 16 focus on facial expressions. The picture of a boy stomping his feet may be used to discuss how we know someone is angry, but stomping feet is not a useful way to respond to feeling mad about something.
Extra support
Enrichment
Awareness of emotions
A toddler uses dolls that represent different emotions to talk about happy, angry, frightened, and sad.
Be Prepared: This activity is for a toddler who is familiar with the When I Am book through participation in Option 1 or a similar book sharing. One possibility for the emotion dolls is Excellerations® Emotions Plush Dolls (set of four). Begin the session with the dolls in a cloth sack or out of sight, so they are not a distraction in the first segment of the activity.
Invite a toddler to look at the When I Am book about feelings with you. Review the pictures briefly, emphasizing the emotion word associated with the picture. Give more attention to pictures/feelings that seem to be of particular interest to the toddler and to the following four illustrations: happy, angry, frightened, and sad.
Then display the dolls. Explain that each doll shows a different way we can feel. Invite the toddler to look at each doll with you. Encourage the toddler to hold a doll as you talk about it.
Begin with the doll that shows happy. Use the following approach with each doll:
Conclude the activity by reminding the toddler of the four feelings we talked about. Invite the toddler to point to the doll that shows a feeling you name or to say the name of the feeling shown by each doll.
The dolls offer a familiar material for talking about four common feelings and an opportunity to strengthen a toddler’s awareness that some feelings have several names (scared/frightened, mad/angry). Asking a toddler to connect the discussion of a feeling to someone he/she knows is a challenging invitation that some toddlers may prefer to ignore. Respect the toddler’s wishes. You may wish to describe a child you know in relation to a feeling. Examples: “I know a girl who is very happy when she plays with blocks.” “I know a boy who was very sad when his friend moved away.”
Extra support
Enrichment
Materials Needed: When I Am/Cuando estoy by Gladys Rosa-Mendoza, dolls used in Option 2
Provide the Option 2 materials and invite toddlers to find the book picture that goes with the feeling shown by each doll. Encourage toddlers to say the name of the feeling and to describe what is happening in the book picture and features of the doll’s facial expression.
Materials Needed: When I Am/Cuando estoy by Gladys Rosa-Mendoza, dolls used in Option 2
Preschool-age children may enjoy participating with toddlers in Option 2. School-age children may enjoy reading the book in Option 1.
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