Feelings

Ok, so this really needed to be 3 weeks! It's just such an important topic for the kids, but it's also one of those things that we're constantly talking about and need to address in many daily situations.

Dramatic Play
Due to popular demand, we had the return of the doctor's office.

Blocks
Wood ABC blocks and train.

Art
We made magazine faces. I cut out eyes, noses, and mouths out of magazines and they got to put them together to make fun faces. They mentioned they needed hair too so I got out some paper strips that some of them used to glue on hair. They also had markers to draw anything else they needed.

I printed and laminated these play dough face mats so they could use play dough to make different face expressions. They thought it was pretty funny for awhile, then just wanted out the rollers and cookie cutters to make whatever.

 
Small Manips
Shape and color links
 
Feelings puzzle
 
Number puzzle

Writing Table
Faces to draw expressions on.
 
Outside
We enjoyed some spring weather with more bug hunting, plus balls, hula hoops, and colored rice in the sensory table.

Large Group
Day 1, we watched the Dave Matthews and Grover video about feelings and read a book about different feelings. We talked about expressing feelings with words instead of actions and then played a feelings game. I made 2 dice with emotions on one and animals on the other. They took turns rolling the dice and acting out the emotion and animal. It was so fun!
In place of small group, we worked together on this Sesame Street feelings paper I found that can be used to help them talk about and express different emotions.
Day 2, we read a book called Hurty Feelings and talked about how people feel when we say hurtful things to them. I then took a paper heart and had the kids say mean things to it, and crumple it with each insult. They didn't like doing that part, because they knew they shouldn't say mean things to someone and hurt their heart. We apologized and complimented the heart and smoothed out the wrinkles and taped the tears. I then pointed out that the heart still wasn't what it used to be, because insults can really hurt. We talked about how it's good to apologize when we've said hurtful things, but it's even better to not say those things in the first place.

We continued learning about our feelings during Easter week too.