How do you feel?

Using toys as props

What you need:

● A teddy, soft toy or puppet ● Photographs of people showing a range of emotions, such as sad, happy, angry and so on

Top tip

Keep the group small and it may lead to an activity that continues over several days.

What’s in it for the children?

Children often have an affinity with a soft toy or a puppet and welcome such friends into their world. Using these toys as props will provoke conversations between the children and will help them to describe how they feel, which will provide the first steps towards building strategies to deal with emotions.

Taking it forward

● Create a storytelling activity – ask the children to devise a story about feelings, write out the story and then read it back to the children so that they can act it out.

Health & Safety

Be mindful that a child may disclose something needing further investigation. Practitioners need to have a good understanding of their setting’s safeguarding procedures.

What to do:

1. Gather the children in a small group. 2. Ensure that the children are comfortable and free from distractions. 3. Introduce the activity to the children talking to them about words that describe feelings, such as happy, sad, upset, angry, scared, confused. Use the photographs to accompany each of the feelings so that the children can relate a physical expression to the spoken word. 4. Sit the teddy or toy on your lap and tell the children how the toy is feeling and why. 5. Ask the children what they think about this feeling. For example, why do they think the toy feels sad? Have they ever felt sad? 6. Ask the children what they could do to help the toy not to feel sad, angry or scared.