Beyond the Journal • Young Children on the Web • November 2006 1

Dice—Print drawings of children’s faces representing different emotions. Gluethe faces and feeling words you want to teach on the six sides of a small box(a collapsible gift box works well). Have children toss the box (as if tossinga die), and when it settles, read the feeling word for the face on top orhave the children identify the feeling. Ask the children to remember a timethey felt that way, or ask them to imitate the expression in the drawing.

Spinner—Print the pictures representing feeling words and paste them on agame spinner board. (A Feeling Wheel is available online in the FeelingChart pages—see Web address above.) Have a child spin the spinner,identify the feeling it points to, and talk about a time he or she experi-

enced the feeling. Children canalso use the spinner to point toan emotion that a character in astory may feel.

Classroom book—Create a class-room book of feeling words usingphotographs you’ve taken of thechildren demonstrating feelings.The book can be about one feel-ing or many. For individual child-

ren you can make books about onefeeling—having the child provide thetext by talking about what triggersthe emotion—or many feelings.

Check-in board—Create a check-inboard where children place theirname tag or photo next to a feelingpicture. Follow up with children,talking with them about the emo-tion they chose and the circum-stances related to their feelings.As the day progresses and feel-ings change, you can facilitate

Teaching Children a Vocabulary for Emotions

Did you know that children who have a large vocabulary of “feeling words” can betterexpress their emotions using language rather than through problem behavior? Thefeelings activities that follow are fun ways to teach children a vocabulary for emotions.

Many of the activities use “feeling faces”—faces expressing a variety of emotions.Drawings of children’s faces representing 10 feelings are available online atwww.csefel.uiuc.edu—under Resources, click on Practical Strategies, and go toFeeling Chart in the section Teaching Social-Emotional Skills.

Lise Fox, PhD, is a professor inthe Department of Child andFamily Studies of the Louis de laParte Florida Mental HealthInstitute of the University of SouthFlorida in Tampa. She conductsresearch and training and developssupport programs focused onyoung children with challengingbehavior.Rochelle Harper Lentini, MEd, isa faculty member in the Departmentof Child and Family Studies of theLouis de la Parte Florida MentalHealth Institute. She providestraining and technical assistance toearly educators and families onsupporting young children withchallenging behavior and promotingsocial and emotional competence.

Photos courtesy of the authors.

Lise Fox and Rochelle Harper Lentini

Beyond the Journal • Young Children on the Web • November 2006 2

children’s chang-ing the placementof their name tagto indicate theirnew feelings.

Puppets—Childrencan create pup-pets that discussfeelings and role-play classroomsituations. Printpictures of a

variety of feeling faces and give children each aset of faces with Velcro tabs to attach inter-changeably on their puppet’s face. Children cancomplete the puppet by adding hair and clothing.

Bingo—Children can play bingo using feeling pic-tures in place of the traditional numbers. Whenyou pull a card with a feeling picture out of a bag,ask the children to identify the feeling, make theexpression on their faces, and then place a markeron the appropriate face on their bingo card.

Thinking aboutemotions duringstory time—Whilereading children’sbooks, stopperiodically andask the childrenwhat a characteris feeling. You maywish to have achart of feelingpictures for thechildren to scan orpoint to whenresponding.

Beyond the Journal • Young Children on the Web • November 2006 3

Problem-solver puppet—Have a class puppethelp you teach children how to problem solve.The puppet can show the children picture cardsto teach them the steps to problem solving. Thepuppet can also provide feedback and encour-agement to children when they use their problem-solving skills and review at the end of the daywho was a problem solver and why.

Solution Kit—The Solution Kit can be used toteach children possible solutions to a variety ofproblems (the kit is available at http://csefel.uiuc.edu/modules-archive/module2/handouts/9.pdf). You can use the pictures from the kit to

teach, cue, andassist withproblem solvingduring classroomsituations.

Role play—Youcan use role-playing to showchildren ex-amples of botheffective andinappropriateways to problemsolve. You canshare situations with the children to act out or read scenarios from astorybook.

Child-Friendly Ideas for Teaching Problem Solving

Problem solving is a complex skill for young children to master. Yet, children’sinability to problem solve can often lead to challenging behavior. Here are some child-friendly ideas for teaching problem solving.

Find graphics for the four Problem-Solving Steps (in the puppet activity) and for theSolution Kit activity online at www.csefel.uiuc.edu—under Resources, click on PracticalStrategies, and go to the section Teaching Social-Emotional Skills.

Copyright © 2006 by the National Association for theEducation of Young Children. See Permissions andReprints online at

www.journal.naeyc.org/about/permissions.asp.