How are we feeling today?

 Every day at Circle time as part of our opening routine I lay out some cards with different facial expressions on them and invite the children one at a time choose a card and tell us how they are feeling today.  The first few times we did the activity the children generally picked either the happy or sad cards.  Now some of them are starting to say things like “I'm happy because I have a little sister.” or “I'm sad because I miss my mom.”  My objective is to encourage the children to become comfortable talking about how they are feeling and I want them to know that it is normal not to feel happy all the time and that it is OK to feel sad or angry or frustrated.  I have found that not only are the children interested in sharing how they are feeling, they are also interested in how others are feeling.  I am always touched when after we talk about our feelings a child asks “How are you feeling today Miss Melanie?”

As an extension to this activity this week the art table was set up with paper plates, mouths of different expressions, eyes of different expressions and hair.  The children built wonderful expressive faces. 
~Ms. Melanie