Identifying Emotions

Fist of all, I'm sorry for being a bit absent lately. I haven't been able to contribute ideas and suggestions quite as frequently as before, but know that I am reading and enjoying everything that you are sharing. The comments and links are fabulous, keep it up!

This month I'd like to focus on Emotions. In today's world, children are not always learning how to identify emotions in themselves or in others. However, it is easy to put focus on this skill in daily interaction and activity. Here are some simple ideas I have put together.

Reading a Book and Watching TV: No, I'm not going to encourage TV watching, but if you are doing it, take the opportunity to discuss the emotions displayed by the on screen characters. Ask, "How do you think he is feeling right now?", "Is there something _________ (another character) can do to help her feel differently?", "How would you feel if you were in his place?", "What would you say to help her feel better?", "Have you ever felt that way?" Use the same approach to reading books. Take your time and discuss the emotions going on rather than rushing through the text. Use the pictures in your conversations as well.

Games: Bingo, Matching, Memory, Charades: Make some bingo cards with different facial expressions. Use photos, magazines, computer print outs, or drawings. As you call out the emotion be sure to make the corresponding face to help your child learn to assess other people's emotions by observation. You can also use pictures to make a set of matching or memory game cards. Then use that same set of cards to play a game of charades as well. As your child's vocabulary builds, use less common synonyms for the emotions; such as pleased, delighted, or content instead of happy.

Collage: Let your child go through old magazines and cut out several different faces. Then help them to sort them into emotional categories and glue them together in a collage.

'How I Feel' Book: Make a book about your child's emotions. You can make one where your child draws a corresponding picture for each emotion. You can use memories (I felt excited when it was my birthday), or simply encourage them to choose colors and shapes that match the feeling (blue is a sad color). You can also take one day and at several points during the day discuss and draw what feelings he or she had; IE: At 10:00 I felt frustrated because I had to sit in time out. At 12:00 I felt hungry because it was lunch time.

I didn't quite finish this project, but here are a few photos from an Emotion Lapbook I am making:

Memory game using sized down printouts from mrmen.com.

Word match for reading and vocabulary skills.

Pattern recognition lift-the-flap using emotion happy faces.

here are some resources for further activities:
Childfun Family Website: Angry Alex Apple activity and story. Perfect for apple season!
Everything Preschool : Feelings Games

Interactive Websites with Emotion Activities:
http://pbskids.org/arthur/games/aboutface/
http://www.article19.com/shockwave/makeaface.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/tikkabilla/games/emotion.shtml
http://www.dotolearn.com/games/facialexpressions/face.htm
http://www.mrmen.com

Identifying Emotions

http://laugh-learn-love.blogspot.com/2008/11/identifying-emotions.html

Music

We all agree that music is important in our children's lives. It teaches our children rhythm, rhyme, harmony, and all sorts of other good stuff (sounds professional coming from a piano teacher, eh?) What I am going to discuss today is ideas on how to introduce more music into your children's lives.

1. Make music part of the routine. Sing the clean up song when it's time to clean up (that's the one redeeming thing that comes from Barney). Play quiet music during quiet time. Play church music on Sundays. Sing bedtime songs with your children (what a great tradition!). Turn on the radio or cds instead of the tv randomly throughout the day.

2. Introduce them to all different types of music. My kids love classical music - mostly thanks to Baby Einstein, but I also play Chopin cds regularly. They also love Kelly Clarkson, and their current favorite song is "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles. And they love all of the songs on "Guitar Hero," because we have played it on family nights together. It's fun watching them "rock out" on air guitar when they hear "Iron Man" on the radio.

3. Introduce them to store bought or homemade instruments. We have a drum set, a harmonica, a recorder, and maracas that my boys adore. However, they are equally excited when I let them get the pots and pans out. Then they pull out my wooden spoons, my plastic spatulas and some serving silverware and they love listening to the different sounds each utensil creates. Or make a kazoo using a toilet paper roll, some wax paper and a rubber band. Deneal also suggested some ideas for instruments in this post. And I found some great ideas here.

4. Show them how reading music works. If you attend church and use hymnals, hold your child's index finger and help them follow along with the words. They will start to understand how to read music. My five year old can now follow every word, knows when to move to the next line, and when to start at the beginning of the song for the next verse. I didn't figure this out until I was 10 years old!

5. Read music books that interest them. Go to the library and borrow books about instruments or composers. Borrow children's books that have a singalong cd. We will go into more depth concerning books with our book club in two weeks.

6. Check out some or all of these websites.

• Click here to see what has been written in the past on this blog about music.
• This is a fun musical memory turtle game.
• Fisher Price has a fun instrument game where you choose a song to play, and there are four or five instruments that play the song. Then you can turn them on or off one at a time to hear what each one sounds like individually.
• Franktown Rocks is, according to their website, "the first-ever musical virtual world for kids."
• Building Blocks has a recording studio where you can learn a song or make your own on a virtual piano.
• Disney has some fun music games for kids.
  
• This is a fun Disney one too: Pluto's Musical Maze
  
• I found an awesome blog, called Munchkins and Music, that helps parents teach their kids all sorts of awesome music-related things, from learning about rhythm, meter, and note values, to Wordless Wednesdays "Which Instrument is This?" (including pictures of little-known instruments). I love this blog! Check it out.

Now it's your turn! Either use the Mr. Linky to connect to your own blog with ideas, or leave a comment with your ideas, and you will be entered into the giveaway! These are the cds I'm giving away:












The Baby Einstein cd has some classical music and some hand-movement songs. Disney's Greatest has 20 of the most famous songs from Disney movies...basically all of the songs you start singing, and then can't get out of your head because they are so catchy. Next Monday I will announce the winners. The first person I choose gets their first cd choice, and the second person I choose gets the other one (hopefully it's their first choice!). For rules of the giveaway, click here.

Next week is your lucky week, because I will be saving you anywhere from $5.00 to $20.00, based on where you live! Check back next Monday for details.

Music

http://laugh-learn-love.blogspot.com/2008/10/music.html

September Theme of the Month: 5 Senses
(this is the place to comment/link)

http://laugh-learn-love.blogspot.com/2008/09/september-theme-of-month-5-senses-this.html

Sensory Activities

Welcome to our first Theme of the Month: The Five Senses! This is a wonderfully broad topic and there are literally thousands of Sensory Activity ideas out there. I'll start you off with a few favorite ones, but please share some of your own discoveries during the month in the theme post which will remain at the top of the blog throughout September. Feel free to use the Mister Linky box or the comments section in that post.

Taste--Conduct a taste test. Grab 3-5 different brands of one food or drink and let your child answer questions about the taste: sweet, salty, sour, smooth, crunchy, etc. For older children you can even incorporate information from the nutritional information label to aid you in deciding which one tops your list.

Touch--Make a texture collage. For a few days or a week hang on to any clean trash that has a noticeable texture: old nylons, plastic onion bag (the mesh ones), cardboard box, plastic food tray, etc. Together with your child create a collage of all the different textures you have collected and if possible write down the descriptive words next to each collage material.

Smell--Play a blindfolded food guessing game. You may want to go through the foods one by one without the blindfold first, discussing the different scents. Then, put on the blindfold and see if your child can correctly identify the food again. Pick some foods that are very pungent and easily recognizable like pickles or lemons, plus some that might make them analyze carefully before guessing.

Sight--Hold a color scavenger hunt. Try doing this both inside and outside and then comparing your results. Make the list specific for some things (a yellow magnet) and more general other times (something green that grows). You can even make it harder for older children by giving more specific colors that they may be learning about: chartreuse, magenta, taupe, etc.

Sound--(I couldn't narrow it down to one, so here are two quick ideas.) Go on a listening walk. Write down all the sounds you can hear while you go on a walk. Notice if they are loud or quiet, pleasant or noisy. /Move to music. Find several different types of music to play: fast slow, loud, soft, exciting, sleepy, etc. Together with your child make movements that are inspired by each different kind of music. Discuss how your feelings might change with each new combination of sounds.

Here are some other things to keep in mind while engaging your child in Sensory Activities.

1. Our five senses are largely what help us understand and describe the world around us. Focus on building new descriptive vocabulary as you are exploring the senses. They will understand meanings much better through hands-on activities, take advantage of that opportunity.

2. Remember to associate each sense with a part of their body. Have them point to the body part that can hear sounds or ask what can their tongue tell them about something. You can even make it into a game: "Simon says touch something that can see."

3. Since you have an entire month, try spending one week on each sense for the month, or one day per sense for an entire week.

4. Show how our senses have to work together to describe and identify things. Do a few experiments where they have to use multiple senses. For example: sight alone can't tell the difference between salt and sugar, or plugging your nose changes the taste of some foods.

5. Explain that some people have damaged senses, like blind or deaf people. Help your child to see how they use their other senses to compensate for the missing ability and what special things they might have to change in their life.

6. Lastly, remember the benefits of developing senses through Sensory Activities. Children are better able to observe, analyze, and describe their world. They can understand things more quickly and come to their own conclusions about the things they encounter in life.

And a few links: (if you try any of these activities, please let us know how they went!)
Paso Partners (not sure the exact title of this site, but it has a lot of teacher ideas for a 5 Senses curriculum)
Nibbles (a few activity ideas)
HHMI (this is definitely for older kids or for your own learning--it has in-depth descriptions of the senses and how they function)

Sensory Activities

http://laugh-learn-love.blogspot.com/2008/09/sensory-activities.html