Our book about learning to accept and express your emotions has been a success with kids. That’s thanks to a lot of testing we do beforehand. I’ll give you an insider tip: Most children’s books are never tested. Hard to believe, but true!
Even though we tested this book, we are still happy to hear that kids and adults like the book. And, to be honest, we’re surprised how much kids love the book. They can easily relate to these abstract emojis.
Pictured above a second-grade teacher is having fun acting out the book with his class. And, pictured on the right, is an activity that a preschool teacher created for their classroom. They used velcro tape to swap between emotions easily. The kids can take turns choosing emotions that they want to explore. You can use prompts like:
- What is your favorite emotion?
- What emotion do you find challenging?
- How do you feel today?
This preschool teacher creates a different book and activity every month. This is how she describes choosing a book:
I look for books each month at the Cincinnati Public Library. The title and the Emoji cover caught my eye. After reading the small description, I knew it would be perfect for the classroom. I do an interactive chart based on our focus each month. Two main things I look for when making an interactive chart are repetition and vocabulary words. Yours had that plus so much more that it was a MUST! By the way, the children had fun acting out each descriptive feeling. They also thought it was so funny to thank the feeling before shaking it out and letting it go.
This preschool teacher thought the book was so successful that they got an extra one for their “By Myself” cozy area. The children use this area when they want time alone due to being upset, tired, missing their parents, or just wanting time for themselves.
Another preschool teacher shared with us an emotions board the class made. Each student made a funny face of their favorite emotion. They photographed the students and labeled their pictures. Unfortunately, due to strict privacy issues with kids, we are unable to share most of the great pictures and videos that we get.
We’ve gotten a lot of fun pictures and stories. Perhaps, my favorite is about a little girl who wanted to visit the pirates at a theme park and get a temporary tattoo. But when she got in line, she felt too scared to continue. Pirates are scary, right!? Fortunately, they read Feel Your Feelings the night before, so the parents encourage the girl to feel scared. Allowing your feelings is a great first step. When she was done, she shook it out and let it go, and then put on her brave face.
Too young to read? That’s okay!
One more pleasant discovery that I’d like to share is that kids don’t even need to be able to read to enjoy this book. Kids can easily identify the emojis, and some parents and teachers simply encourage them to act it out in any way they like, followed by our fun mantra: “Now let it go, and shake it out.”
By the way, Feel Your Feelings is a book that resonates with young audiences 3–5 but is also great for ages up to 8 and older, particularly for children who are challenged to express themselves.
More activities
Visit the Feel Your Feelings book page for more individual and group activities, like:
- Emoji Cutout Kit
- Talking Points
- Emoji Games, including Memory, Tic Tac Toe and Charades
- See all this bonus material here.
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These help explain concepts that you can explain to your child or class
