Teaching Children About Emotions There are many things that teachers can do to help support children’s understanding emotions. Here are some ideas:
Make faces expressing different emotions and have children guess what you might be feeling.
Throughout the day, help children learn to label their own emotions (e.g., “It looks like you are feeling mad that we can’t go outside; what can we do to help you feel better?”).
While reading stories to children, have children guess how the characters in the story are feeling. Ask questions like, “How can you tell that the character is feeling that way? Can you make a face that shows that feeling?”
Use puppets to act out different situations; for example, one puppet takes a toy from another puppet. Ask the children what emotion(s) the puppets might be feeling.
Frequently direct children to look at each other’s faces and think about how they are feeling.
Listen to some different types of music, such as rock or classical, and let the children dance to the music. Ask children how the song made the children feel.