My Feelings Book

Activity Overview

Children begin to explore emotional expression at an early age. We see laughs, smiles, tears, and frowns and as adults, we help children identify and describe those emotions. As children mature, being able to read how a peer is feeling is a key component in building empathetic connections. We can’t expect a child to help a peer feel better if they cannot interpret their friend’s emotions. In this activity, students will create a book that acts as a guide for understanding and interpreting their own emotions and those of their peers.

What You Need

• My Feelings Book

• Colored pencils and paper

Steps

1. Open Book Creator and read “My Feelings Book” with students. This version of the book has words, but no pictures. To open the book:

   1. Visit https://app.bookcreator.com/libraries

   2. Click “Join a Library”

   3. Enter the library code: S9B6RWP

   4. Click on the leftmost icon at the very bottom (three books), select “Copy book,” and then open it in your library.

2. Click on the pencil icon to start adding photos to your book.

3. For each feeling in the book, there are two blank boxes for student work. To add pictures, click the box and select the camera (to take a picture) or the mountain (to use a picture from your library).

4. For the first box on the page, ask students to draw what each emotion feels like to them. This can be abstract representations like colorful marks or literal drawings of their expressions.

5. For the second box on the page, upload a picture of the students making a facial expression that aligns with the feeling.

6. Continue uploading pictures until you’ve reached the end of the book.

7. Click the play icon in the upper right corner when you’re ready to read the book together! (we do not recommend clicking the “Read to Me” button, as the voices are quite robotic)

Guiding Questions

• What do I look like when I am happy? Does my face change? Does my body change?

• What about when I’m sad, excited, or angry?

• How do I express my own feelings throughout the day?

• What do my friend’s faces look like when they are experiencing these feelings?

• What about my family members?