Learn about emotions with story stones!
My daughter has been struggling to put her emotions into words or express them in effective ways lately so to help her better understand and articulate her feelings, so we’ve been talking a lot about emotions and doing kids activities that center on learning emotions. Kids love to explore with simple hands-on activities so I put together this fun little variation on typical story stones.
Learn about Emotions with Build-a-Face Story Stones
Post contains affiliate links for your convenience, see my disclosure for more.
This kid’s activity is a simple one. Round up some rocks and give each one a facial feature. I made eyes, noses, & mouths in different expressions and then set them out so my daughter and the daycare kids could create faces with them.
Emotion Story Stones Materials:
- Rocks
- Acrylic Paint
- A sheet of paper with “face” (oval) on it
I’m sure you could easily create these with Sharpies but acrylic paints are all I had on hand so that’s what I used. Thankfully my girls aren’t put off by my lack of artistic skills and could figure out what each expression was.
The kids would create faces with the story stones and then take turns sharing them with the rest of us. We’d talk about the emotions they created, explaining how we feel and how we act when we are feeling that way. It’s a great way to explore emotional intelligence in a way preschoolers can connect with.
Related Learning Activity: Emotion Charades Game for Preschoolers!
These opened a whole conversation about how they feel for each emotion created and how they can handle their bodies/feelings when experiencing said emotions.
“I cry when I’m sad. Waaaaahh.”
“I run in my room by myself when I’m mad.” *makes angry face*
“I scream like this *screams* when surprised/scared.”
My daughter learned a lot from this. One big “aha” moment was the difference between being surprised and scared. She used the two terms interchangeably before this but as we were making the faces and talking about the situations that caused these feelings she realized being surprised didn’t only mean in a scary way, she could be surprised and be happy.
How do you teach children about emotions?
Want more? Try this game:
Looking for more crafts and activities? Check out our index for 100+ plus kids activities! Find activities by theme, materials, skills, age and much more!
What a playful way to discuss emotions! If we hope to raise empathetic and caring children, then our kids need to be literate in emotional intelligence as much as any other form of intellect. How wonderful that this helped your daughter differentiate between surprised and scared! Sharing on FB today 🙂
This is AWESOME! Pinned. 🙂
Thanks Leslie! 🙂
I love this idea! I have a flannel board story that uses a variety of eyes, eyebrows, mouths (and even blushing cheeks). I like your version because it is very durable. Nicely done!
What wonderful activity for talking about feelings.
This is so creative and cute!!
I am pinning this now!
Thank you for stopping by the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop this week. We hope to see you drop by our neck of the woods next week!
This is great! I am a retired special ed. teacher, now working as a consultant/interventionist for the school system and independently. I work with a lot of Autistic children on social skills. This is perfect to work with them. Thank you.
I have tried to pin it, but it is not cooperating.
These are such a great idea! Love them! Thanks for linking up to Tuesday Tots. I’ve featured this idea this week 🙂
I truly love this idea! We’ve been trying to lean towards the Reggio Emilia approach at our early childhood facility & I think this is a great way for our two year old’s to help decipher their emotions! Thanks so much for sharing!
This is such a cute idea! I love it! Pinning and sharing!
I love this idea 🙂 pour les préscolaire
Merci :0)
How fun! What a smart idea