Course 1

Course 1

The Emotions theme can help children identify and name their emotions.

Throughout each day, children experience a wide range of feelings.

Sometimes they experience changes in emotions from hour to hour or sometimes from minute to minute! Please assist your children with beginning to understand these emotions by naming and explaining it as your child experiences them. (Example: “You must be very excited now, I see a big smile on your face; you’re smiling because you are getting ready to eat your favourite, ice-cream.” or, “I see you are feeling disappointed now because you don’t want to go home yet and now you’re crying.”)

*Remember: Labelling emotions help toddlers cope with feelings. Emotions like anger, sadness, frustration and disappointment can be overwhelming for young children. Naming these feelings is the first step in helping children learn to identify them and communicates to children that these feelings are normal. 

Activity 1 

Making a happy red face AND a sad blue face

Duration of activity: 15-20 minutes per face 

What you need?

  • Red paint in a wide based, shallow container
  • Blue paint in a wide based, shallow container
  • Sponge x2/ or paint brush
  • 2 pre-traced circles (preferably on a harder board or sturdier paper) or 2 paper plates
  • Googly eyes/ or large circular buttons (to use as eyes)
  • Glue
  • Marker 

What to do:

  1. *Caregiver is to draw 2 thick lined circles (or it can be printed out beforehand). Also prepare some red and blue paints and place each in a shallow wide container.
  2. Ask your child to paint the 1st circle red and 2nd circle blue using the sponges. Have your child do it by him/herself and remember to praise the efforts. Using the sponge, begin to demonstrate to your child to paint 2nd circle blue. Ask your child to start collecting items from his/her toy box that match the colours. 
  3. Next, place the pained circles in a sunny area to dry
  4. Once dry, your child can then paste eyes on to them using the glue.
  5. Lastly, talk about a happy and smiley face(ask your child to make a happy and smiley face, you may tickle him/her to get some laughter going)
  6. Then say: “Let’s make your red circle happy too.” Have your child draw a smiley mouth to complete the happy face. You may also use a different emotion which is similar to happy (Example: excited)
  7. Then do the same with the opposite emotion of sadness: 1st make a sad face and have your child try to make one too with his/her facial expressions. You might remind your child of aspecific time you saw him/her being sad as well as why. Then say: “Lets give your blue circle a sad face.” Proceed to draw an upside down smile to represent the mouth and complete the sad face. You may also use a different emotion which is similar to being sad. (Example: worried or scared)
  8. These opposite emotion colour faces may also be done at various times during the day and not necessarily both at the same time.

Activity 2

Balloon hockey

Duration: 5 – 10 minutes

What you need?

  • Balloons -+4 
  • Open space
  • Clean fly swatter or a rolled up cardboard or newspaper
  • Washing basket

What to do: 

  1. *Caregiver is to blow balloons up.
  2. Use a marker and draw different emotion facial expressions on the balloons (Example: excited, scared, sleepy, angry, sad)
  3. Use flyswatter or rolled up cardboard/newspaper as a hockey stick, and turned a washing basket turned on its side as the goal post.
  4. Explain to your child that he/she must try to hit the balloon into the basket
  5. As your child scores a goal ask him/her to try and identify the emotion/feeling based on the drawing on the balloon.
  6. Have fun by maybe getting your own stick to play along with your child.
  7. Have fun! 

Activity 3

Counting and stacking

Duration:  5 – 10 minutes

What you need?

  • 10 Foam cups/plastic cup 5
  • A small ball

What to do:

  1. Provide your child with 10 plastic/foam cups
  2. Show him/her to stack the cups on top of one another in the form of a pyramid (i.e. stacking 4 in the bottom row with a small space between each; then carefully stacking 3 cups above the first 4; then proceed to carefully stack 2 cups above the 3; lastly stacking 1 above the 2 cups.
  3. Now ask your child to roll the ball towards the pyramid stacked cups to try and knock them over.
  4. Have your child count how many cups they were able to knock over and tell you the amount
  5. Instruct your child to stack the pyramid on their own (Assist only when necessary, soon he/she will be doing it on their own with no help.)
  6. Your child will repeat this activity and enjoy stacking the cups and knocking it over each time by rolling the ball at it.
  7. Remember to encourage your child to touch count as they count the fallen cups.