We all have feelings, sometimes we feel happy, sometimes we feel sad, sometimes we feel silly and sometimes we feel mad. And that is o.k. Being able to talk about feelings is one of the most important things in life. It makes us feel less alone. The Feelings activities, songs and books that will be covered this week will do just that. It will help those little thinkers realize that it is ok to feel different feels.
MY FEELINGS ACTIVITIES
Creative Space
Play dough, stamps, scissors, lacing beads and cards, puzzles and blocks are set out for the children to choose from, and get creative during this 30 minute period.
My Feelings Circle Time
Everyday during Circle Time we do the morning routine, which includes the Calendar and ‘Number, Color, Shape and Letter of the week’. We then read a story, sing a few songs and do a group activity.
On every Monday we change the ‘Classroom Helpers’ Classroom Jobs. Each child has a name card on a popsicle stick, and they get to choose their job of the week.
My Feelings Circle Time Activities
Activity 1: Weekend News
Every Monday morning each child gets a chance to talk about their weekend and what they did. The children then draw a picture in the ‘weekend news’ journal, and the teacher writes down what they have said.
Activity 2: If you’re happy and you know it…
Ask children how they feel today (one by one). Talk about how we can sometimes feel a lot of different feelings, all in one day, and that it is ok. Sing: ‘If you’re happy and you know it’, but replace it with the following: angry – stomp your feet, excited – jump up & down, sad – make a frown, scared – hide your face
Activity 3: Storybots Video and Red Light/ Green Light
The song of today is 11 mins long, which does not leave too much space for an activity. If there is any time left, play ‘Red Light, Green, Light’. Children have to stop when you say red light, and go when you say green light. Stretch the red light moments out a bit longer just to test the kids’ patience.
Activity 4: Paper Plate Feelings
Give each child a piece of cardstock (or a paper plate). Children draw a happy face on the one side and a sad face on the other. Ask questions such as: ‘How do you feel when you lose something?’, ‘How do you feel when you get a present?’, ‘How do you feel when someone does not want to play with you?’ etc. Children turn the plates to show their feelings.
Activity 5: Charades and The Spider with Feelings
Charades: Volunteers make different faces and the other children guess the emotion.
Angry Little Spider: Sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider, but replace with The ‘Angry Little’ Spider, The ‘Sad Little Spider’, The ‘Happy Little Spider’, The ‘Quiet Little’ Spider, The ‘Loud Little’ Spider &The ‘Fast Little’ Spider, while acting it out. The kids LOVE this activity.
My Feelings Songs
Ten action songs all about our Feelings, to get those bodies moving and grooving while making school so much more fun. Click on the image to head over to the post.
My Feelings Books
Nineteen of the best story picture books that are perfect for the My Feelings theme. Click on the image below to read what these books are about.
My Feelings Literacy Activities
Activity 1: My Feelings Printable Book (feel good feelings)
Read ‘The Feel Good Book’ by Todd Parr, or watch the read aloud here. Talk to the children about all the different feelings we have. Use the Feelings Expression Cards and ask children to copy the expressions.
Divide the cards into good and bad feelings. Go through The Feelings Printable Book & ask children which emotions they see as feel good emotions. Do the ‘excited’, ‘happy’ and ‘content’ pages
Activity 2: My Feelings Printable Book (feel not so good feelings)
Read ‘One of Those Days’ by Amy Krouse Rosenthal or watch the read aloud here. Ask the children what makes them feel not so good.
Children do the ‘angry’, ‘sad’, ‘worried’, and ‘’embarrassed’ pages by drawing pictures. The teacher writes down what they drew. Ask volunteers to ‘read’ their completed feelings books to the class, or the teacher can read it if they are too shy.
Click on the image below to download the printable book.
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My Feelings Literacy Centers
Center 1: Spin, Draw & Write
Cut out, laminate and assemble the spinner. Children take turns to spin the spinner. The ones that can’t write yet, will draw the emotion that the arrow lands on, on their recording sheet. The rest will draw the emotion as well as write the word. Continue until the recording sheet is completed
Center 2: My Feelings Bingo
Bingo can be either played during circle time, or as a center game. Click on the images below to download the Spin, Draw & Write Center, My Feelings Bingo and the free set of Expression Cards.
My Feelings Math Activities
Activity 1: Pout-Pout Fish Sequencing
Read ‘The Pout-Pout Fish’ by Deborah Diesen or watch the YouTube video here. Discuss the fish and his friends’ feelings. Why is he so sad looking? Ask volunteers to re-tell the story. Do the Sequencing Cut-and-Paste Activity from the Pout-Pout Fish Pack.
Activity 2: Pout-Pout Fish Role Play
Divide the children into groups (6 to a group). Give each child in a group a different sea animal picture (from the Pout-Pout Fish pack). Ask them to color the pictures. When they are done, stick a plastic straw on the back of each picture.
Ask each group to order the sea animals from 1 – 5 in the order that the Pout-Pout Fish spoke to them. Each group then role plays the story using the sea animals as masks while the teacher re-reads the story.
Click on the image below to download the Pout-Pout Fish Printable Pack
My Feelings Math Centers
There were 3 rotatable centers for the week. Children were able to do the Play Dough Mats and Snap-Cube Centers by themselves, which was great to boost their confidence. The teacher assisted them with the racing board game (which is a fantastic way to get them to talk about their feelings).
My Feelings Art Activity: Glad Monster, Sad Monster
I found this awesome Art Activity Idea over at FourCheekyMonkeys.com. Instead of paper plates, I just cut circles out of colored construction paper for the monsters heads.
What you need:
- Circles cut out of colored construction paper (about 9 inches in diameter)
- 4 Strips of colored construction paper per child (2 inches by 20 inches for the legs and 1.5 inches by 15 inches for the arms)
- Ovals cut out of colored construction paper for the noses
- Big Googly Eyes
- Tiny strips of colored construction paper for the hair
- A black marker
- Triangles cut out of white paper for the teeth,
Time for the activity:
Read ‘Sad Monster, Glad Monster’ by Ed Emberley or watch the read-aloud on YouTube here. Talk about how we can see how someone feels by looking at their facial expressions. Demonstrate how to draw happy, sad, angry, surprised and scared faces. Children copy these onto paper.
When they are done, the teacher can hand out the pre-cut circles, strips of paper, ovals and googly eyes and show the children how to put these together to make monsters. The children can then decide what kind of feeling monster they want and then draw the mouth on their monster. The kids in my class all went for Happy Monsters.
My Feelings Science Activity: The Color Monster
Activity 1: The Color Monster Color Match Up
Read ‘The Color Monster’ by Anna Lennas or watch the YouTube read-aloud video here. Talk about different feelings and the colors we associate with it. Color the emotions and jars on the worksheet the same colors as in the story.
Activity 2: Primary Colors Mixing
The teacher demonstrates mixing primary colors to get secondary colors by mixing food coloring in water. Red & Yellow = Orange, Blue and Red = Purple and Yellow and Blue = Green.
The children complete the activity sheets.
Click on the image below to download the Color Monster Printables.
My Feelings Cooking Activity
Who does not love making happy and sad faces on round crackers using raisins and cheese and then eating it!
Find the whole weeks activities and printables in one pack right here!
