Background & Learning Outcomes:

This story time and the follow-up activities are designed to help preschool children learn to recognize and name different feelings. Children will also learn to identify their own feelings and express them. Recognizing feelings is an important skill. It is the first step towards other skills like getting along with others, demonstrating kindness towards others and learning how to respond to difficult feelings. This activity can be done at school or at home.

Materials:

• Book: “The Way I Feel” by Janan Cain, a book about feelings commonly experienced by children.
• Art supplies for follow-up activities

Teaching and Learning Activities (during Story Time):

1. ACTIVATE THINKING: Introduce the book “The Way I Feel” to the children. Ask the group what feelings are. Have them give examples of different feelings they have.
2. Read the story.
3. Ask the children to share times when they felt silly, scared, happy, sad, angry, excited and proud.
4. Use the children's examples and additional situations and ask them to show you with their faces and bodies how they would feel. 

Adaptations:

• Print off outlines of faces or use paper plates and provide markers for children to fill in the facial expressions. 
• Read other books about feelings as well as regularly ask children to identify feelings in storybook characters.
• Incorporate sharing feelings into the class' daily routine
• Paint feelings. Put out different colours of paint and put on music. Invite children to listen to the music and think about how it makes them feel. Encourage them to use the different paint colours to show how they feel. Try this with different clips of music.
• Create other scenarios and ask children to demonstrate how they would feel if this happened.
• Create a feelings wall. With permission, take photos of the children and post them to demonstrate different feelings and/or provide magazines for children to add images to the wall.