Navigating the big world of emotions can be a real puzzle for little ones. One minute they might be bouncing with joy, the next dissolving into tears or frustration, often without understanding why or how to express what’s happening inside. Helping children identify, understand, and express their feelings is a cornerstone of healthy emotional development. It builds self-awareness, empathy, and resilience. But how do you make learning about something as abstract as feelings tangible and engaging for kids? Enter the humble, yet powerful, feelings chart – especially one they help create themselves.
Turning the creation of a feelings chart into a craft project is a fantastic way to approach this. It combines hands-on creativity with essential emotional learning. Instead of just presenting a pre-made chart, involving children in the making process gives them ownership and makes the tool much more meaningful and likely to be used. It becomes *their* chart, featuring faces *they* helped draw, representing feelings *they* are learning about.
Let’s Get Crafting: Building Your Feelings Chart
Making a feelings chart doesn’t require fancy materials or artistic genius. Simplicity is often key, especially for younger children. The focus should be on the process and the conversations that happen along the way.
Gather Your Supplies
You probably have most of what you need already:
- Base: A large piece of cardstock, construction paper, a paper plate, or even a flattened cardboard box. Something sturdy enough to handle use.
- Drawing Tools: Crayons, markers, colored pencils. Choose whatever your child enjoys using.
- Optional Extras: Googly eyes, yarn for hair, stickers, construction paper scraps for features, scissors (adult supervision needed!), glue stick.
- Fastener (for interactive charts): A brass fastener (brad) and a paper arrow, or a clothespin.
Step-by-Step Creation
1. Choose Your Feelings: Start simple. For very young children, focus on a few basic emotions like happy, sad, angry, and maybe surprised or scared. As children get older, you can introduce more nuanced feelings like frustrated, excited, worried, proud, or calm. Talk about what each feeling word means. Ask your child: “What does it feel like in your body when you are happy? What makes you feel sad?”
2. Design the Layout: Decide how you want to arrange the feelings. You could divide a large paper into sections, one for each emotion. Or, if using a paper plate, you can draw faces around the edge like a clock. A simple list format also works.
3. Drawing the Faces – The Fun Part!: This is where the child’s involvement is crucial. Encourage them to draw a face for each feeling. Don’t worry about perfection! Simple circles with different mouths and eyebrows can convey a lot. A big smile for happy, a downturned mouth for sad, furrowed brows for angry, wide eyes and an open mouth for surprised. Talk about the features: “What do angry eyebrows look like? Let’s draw a wiggly mouth for worried.” Let them choose the colors. Maybe yellow for happy, blue for sad, red for angry – or maybe they have their own color associations! Using googly eyes or yarn hair can add extra personality.
4. Label Clearly: Write the name of the emotion clearly next to or below each face. This helps connect the visual representation with the word, building emotional vocabulary.
5. Make it Interactive (Optional):
- Arrow Pointer: Cut an arrow shape from cardstock. Attach it to the center of the chart (if circular or sectioned) with a brass fastener so it can spin and point to different feelings.
- Clothespin Marker: If your chart is a list or has faces along an edge, a clothespin can be clipped next to the feeling the child identifies with. You can even decorate the clothespin!
6. Decorate!: Let your child add borders, stickers, or drawings around the chart to make it truly their own.
Bringing the Feelings Chart to Life: Daily Use
Creating the chart is just the beginning. Its real value comes from incorporating it into your daily routine and conversations.
Identifying and Naming Feelings
Make checking in with the feelings chart a regular thing. You could do it in the morning, after school, or before bed. Ask gentle, open-ended questions:
- “How are you feeling right now? Can you show me on your chart?”
- “It looks like you might be feeling frustrated with that toy. Is that right? Which face looks like frustrated?”
- “You seem really happy about going to the park! Let’s find the happy face!”
When they point to a feeling, validate it. Say things like, “It’s okay to feel sad sometimes,” or “I understand why you might feel angry.” Naming the feeling takes away some of its overwhelming power and helps the child understand their internal state.
A Tool for Expression
Sometimes, children struggle to find the words for big emotions. The chart provides a non-verbal way to communicate. If a child is upset but can’t articulate why, they might be able to point to the ‘sad’ or ‘angry’ face. This opens the door for you to offer comfort and support, gently probing further if appropriate. “I see you’re pointing to the angry face. Can you tell me a little bit about what happened?” Even if they can’t elaborate, acknowledging the feeling shown on the chart is validating.
Connecting Feelings to Coping Skills
This is where the feelings chart evolves into a powerful coping skills aid. Once a child identifies a feeling, especially a difficult one like anger, sadness, or frustration, you can use the chart to discuss healthy ways to manage it. You might even add simple pictures or words representing coping strategies next to the relevant feelings on the chart itself, or create a separate, linked ‘Coping Skills Menu’.
Examples:
- Angry: Take deep breaths, squeeze a stress ball, punch a pillow (in a safe space), take a break, stomp feet.
- Sad: Ask for a hug, listen to calming music, draw a picture, talk about it, cuddle a stuffed animal.
- Worried/Scared: Talk to a grown-up, think of a safe place, take deep breaths, do something relaxing like reading.
- Frustrated: Ask for help, take a break and come back later, try a different way.
When your child points to ‘angry’, you can say, “Okay, you’re feeling angry. Remember our angry coping skills? Which one feels like it might help right now? Should we try taking three deep breaths together?” This empowers them with choices and teaches them that while feelings themselves aren’t bad, they have options for how they respond to them.
Verified Benefits: Regularly using a feelings chart craft helps children build crucial emotional intelligence. It enhances their ability to recognize and label their own emotions and those of others. This process fosters better communication, reduces frustrating outbursts, and equips kids with foundational coping strategies for life’s ups and downs.
Beyond the Basics: Expanding the Concept
As children grow, their understanding of emotions becomes more complex. You can adapt the feelings chart concept accordingly.
- Introduce Intensity: Add a simple scale (like 1-3 or low-medium-high) next to each feeling. “Are you feeling a little bit sad, or very, very sad?”
- Body Clues: Talk about where they feel emotions in their body. “Where do you feel angry? In your tummy? In your fists?” You could even draw a simple body outline and have them point or draw where the feeling ‘lives’.
- Feeling Triggers: Discuss what kinds of situations tend to lead to certain feelings. “What things often make you feel happy? What sometimes makes you feel frustrated?” This builds self-awareness about their personal emotional landscape.
- Multiple Feelings: Explain that sometimes people feel more than one thing at once, like feeling both excited and nervous before a party.
The key is consistency and patience. Learning about emotions is a lifelong journey, and a homemade feelings chart is a wonderful, creative first step. It’s not about fixing feelings, but about understanding, accepting, and navigating them together. By making it a craft, you create a positive, engaging experience around emotional exploration, transforming a potentially tricky topic into an opportunity for connection and growth. It’s a visual reminder that all feelings are okay, and there are healthy ways to handle even the toughest ones. This simple paper plate or piece of cardstock, adorned with crudely drawn faces, becomes a powerful tool for building a more emotionally aware and resilient child.
Remember to revisit the chart periodically. As your child’s understanding grows, you might want to create a new one together, adding more complex emotions or different coping strategies. The act of creation itself reinforces the learning. Keep it visible and accessible, perhaps on the fridge or a bedroom wall, so it serves as a constant, friendly guide through the colourful, sometimes confusing, world of feelings.
