This activity promotes development and learning by encouraging children to identify others’ feelings by their facial expressions. Recognizing emotions in others and themselves is a first step for children in healthy social-emotional development and positive relationships.
Materials Needed: Printed images of people expressing a variety of facial expressions (from the internet or your personal photo collection)
Participants: This activity is intended for adult/child interaction.
Directions:
- Slowly show your child each photo and describe the person’s feelings. “This person is feeling happy. She’s smiling and her eyes are crinkled.”
- Go through the images again. Ask your verbal child to identify the feelings depicted in each photo.
- Ask your child to show you a variety of facial expressions. “Can you show me happy?” “Yes, you look happy!”
