Emotional Health Check-Ins
Why This is Important
An emotional well-being “check-in” with your child on a regular basis will make it simple and fun to find out how your child is really feeling and how your child is handling the day’s ups and downs. Use a visual feelings chart to help your child put a face to each emotion they are feeling.
Quick Activity
Create a play microphone from a toilet paper tube and aluminum foil or use a prop such as a hairbrush. Pretend you are a news reporter and describe an experience that has happened and how it made you feel. Then give the microphone to your child. Ask your child to share a story and “report” how it made them feel. For example, today at the grocery store, someone noticed my hands were full, and they held open the door for me. That made me feel thankful, and it was really a kind gesture. DIY microphone
More Activities and Games
Help your child create face masks to show different emotions. Your child can draw on a disposable surgical mask or a paper plate. Ask your child to wear the mask with their favorite emotion or the emotion they are currently feeling. DIY face masks
Use a decorated sock or paper bag as an emotion puppet. Have the puppet talk about its feelings, act out a story, or play the characters in a book you have selected. This helps your child learn how to talk about his or her own feelings and build skills to be sensitive to the feelings of others.
Download these Monster Emotions Play-dough Mats or draw faces on paper plates. Create an emotions chart to use as a reference or download this free emotions reference chart. Use Play-Doh to create emotions on the monster mats or use crayons to create different emotion faces on the paper plate. While doing this activity, talk about how each face created corresponds to the emotions we feel. For example: smiling = happy / tongue out =silly or playful / frown = sad or angry.