What children need to know about emotions
By the senior preschool age, the child has already formed an idea of human emotions, which include:
- joy
- sadness
- fear
- anger
- resentment
- astonishment
Children define and name psychological states, briefly describe them, and give examples of everyday situations in which a person experiences them.
Pictures for children depicting emotions teach the child to reason, describe cause-and-effect relationships, and analyze his own life experience.
During speech therapy work, it is useful to offer preschool children topics related to people’s experiences to compose narrative stories. For example:
- Is it only humans who have feelings?
- What are positive and negative emotions?
- When am I happy and when am I sad?
Emotions can be divided into pairs with opposite meanings. For example: joy - sadness, disgust - admiration, boredom - interest, etc. Children should be able to recognize and name the feeling of the character in the picture, but also select antonyms for the definition. Exercises in this format allow you to more firmly consolidate the characteristics of emotions.
Children should know that we can learn about a person’s psychological state both from words and by observing actions and behavior. Each emotion has a corresponding dictionary and a set:
- gestures
- facial expressions,
- actions
It is useful to have conversations with older preschoolers about how their emotional state needs to be managed, especially when it comes to negative feelings. You cannot give free rein to anger, irritation, or sadness. Express feelings only in socially acceptable ways. Children will be interested to know that in countries around the world people express feelings in different ways.
Defining emotions for children
For speech therapy work with students in the senior and preparatory groups of kindergarten, use the following list of emotional states:
Joy is a positive emotion familiar to everyone. We feel joy when something good happens. A person can express this feeling through words and actions. Signs of a joyful state are laughter and smiling. Experiencing joy feels good, as does bringing it to others.
Sadness is a feeling that appears when we learn or think about something sad. Sadness cannot be called a strong emotion; it passes quickly. This does not mean that you should not allow yourself to be sad; sometimes every person needs it. But you shouldn’t indulge too much in a sad mood; it’s more useful to try to quickly get rid of it by doing something pleasant or useful.
Anger is anger, strong irritation towards someone or something. Feeling angry is not pleasant, but sometimes it happens to everyone. It is a strong emotion that can cause trouble for us and others. It is important to explain to children how to manage anger and be able to express it correctly. If a person is often angry, then it is difficult for him to find friends, he is often lonely.
Fear is a strong negative emotion that people experience if they are threatened by something. The danger can be real or expected or imaginary. Every child has repeatedly felt fear, so he can easily recognize its image in illustrations or photographs, and also give examples of events, objects and phenomena that cause this feeling in them. Children should know that fear varies in intensity, from fear to horror. It is important to explain to children that this emotion is necessary for a person, as it warns of danger. It can be added that the color black is often used to illustrate fear in pictures.
Admiration is a pleasant emotion that arises when encountering something very beautiful or unusual. Admiration can be caused by: an unusual toy, a garden in bloom, an elegant girl. People, expressing admiration, use special exclamations: (oh, ah, wow, wow) and words (really, amazing, wonderful, wonderful, extraordinary). Admiration can be so strong that it is very difficult to express your feeling in words. From a photograph or drawing, preschool children can easily recognize a person who admires something, although it is difficult for them to describe his feelings; this requires special speech therapy training.
Shame is an unpleasant feeling that occurs when we have done something bad and regret it. The older the children, the easier it is to explain to them the essence and meaning of this emotional state. Signs of shame are not only certain facial expressions, but also redness of certain parts of the face (cheeks, ears, neck). Knowing this feature will help preschoolers quickly and easily recognize shame in drawings (by the way, this sign can often be seen in story pictures for children and even in selfies) and in the behavior of people around them. You can have a conversation with children 6-7 years old about the difference between shame and shyness; these states are easy to confuse.
Resentment - a person feels resentment when someone’s action seems unfair to him. Some people are touchy, others rarely experience this emotion. It is difficult to describe the state of resentment; preschool children should be able to recognize its image. To do this, you can use both schematic images (for example, emoticons - simple pictures of emotions for children), and realistic drawings, color or black and white photographs. By the way, it is convenient to print such visual material from collections and presentations on specialized speech therapy websites.
Card index of games for emotional development in the middle group
Inna Likhacheva
Card index of games for emotional development in the middle group
"Training emotions "
teaches you to understand the emotions of others , express your own emotions , feelings and their shades.
Joy. Please smile like: a cat in the sun; the sun itself; sly Fox; happy child; happy mom.
Anger. Show how angry you were: a child whose toy was taken away; Pinocchio when Malvina punished him; two sheep on the bridge.
Fright. Show how scared you were: the hare who saw the wolf; a kitten at which a dog barks.
"Mood Lotto"
develops the ability to understand the emotions of other people and express one's own emotions .
Schematic images of emotions face on the table . The child takes one card and , without showing it to anyone, depicts it using facial expressions, pantomimes, and voice intonations. The rest guess the depicted emotion .
"Go away, anger, go away"
Target. Learning to express negative emotions , developing the skill of regulating the emotional state .
The child lies down on the carpet, with pillows around him. Closing their eyes, they begin to beat their feet on the floor with all their strength, and their hands on the pillows and shout loudly: “Go away, anger, go away!”
After three minutes, at the adult’s signal, the children lie down in the star position, with their arms and legs spread wide, and lie quietly, listening to calm music.
Game "Continue the Phrase"
Target. Developing the ability to express one's own emotions .
Children pass the ball around in a circle, while continuing the phrase, telling when and in what situation it happens like this: “I rejoice when...”
,
“I get angry when...”
,
“I get upset when...”
,
“I get offended when...”
,
“I get sad when...”
, etc.
Game "Name Calling"
Target. Discharging negative emotions in an acceptable form using verbal means .
Children pass the ball around in a circle, while calling each other different harmless words. These can be (by agreement with the group )
names of trees, fruits, furniture, mushrooms, vegetables, etc. Each appeal must begin with the words
“And you.”
and accompanied by a glance at the partner. For example:
“And you are a carrot!”
.
In the final circle, the players must say something nice to their neighbor, for example: “And you are the sun!”
After completing the last round, it is necessary to discuss what was more pleasant to listen to and why.
Pillow Fight Game
Target. Reducing emotional and muscle tension.
Children, at the command of the leader, begin the battle - “the battle of two tribes”
,
“Here’s to you.”
or others. The players hit each other with pillows, emitting victory cries, trying to hit different parts of the body.
An adult can start the game to lift the ban on aggressive actions. You should agree in advance with the children that immediately after the signal (bell, clap, etc.)
the game stops.
children in . Avoid excessive emotional arousal .
Game "Unusual Battle"
Target. Reducing emotional and muscle tension.
Children, at the command of the leader, begin an “unusual battle”
. The players tear up newsprint and throw them at each other, uttering cries of victory, trying to hit different parts of the body.
Game "Repeat the movements"
Goal: developing the ability to control one’s actions, subordinating the instructions of an adult.
A child, listening to an adult, must perform movements; if he hears the name of a toy, he must clap, if the name of a dish is called, he must stomp, if he hears the name of a piece of clothing, he must sit down.
Game “An hour of silence - an hour is possible”
Target. Developing the ability to regulate one’s state and behavior.
Agree with your child that sometimes, when you are tired and want to rest, there will be an hour of silence in the house. The child should behave quietly, play calmly, draw, and design. But sometimes you will have an hour of "maybe"
when the child is allowed to do everything: jump, scream, take mother’s clothes and father’s instruments, hug parents, hang on them, ask questions, etc. These hours can be alternated, they can be arranged on different days, the main thing is that they become familiar in the family .
Game "Silence"
Target. Developing the ability to control your emotions and manage your behavior.
The players sit in a circle and are silent; they should neither move nor talk. The driver walks in a circle, asks questions, performs ridiculous movements. Those sitting must repeat everything he does, but without laughter or words. Whoever breaks the rules drives.
Game "YES and NO"
Target. Developing the ability to control impulsive actions.
When answering questions the words “YES”
and
“NO”
cannot be said. Any other answers can be used.
Are you a girl? Is the salt sweet?
Birds are flying? Do geese meow?
Is it winter now? Is a cat a bird?
Is the ball square? Does a fur coat keep you warm in winter?
Do you have a nose? Are the toys alive?
Game "Speak"
Target. Developing the ability to control impulsive actions.
The presenter says: “I will ask you questions, simple and complex. But it will be possible to answer them only when I give the command “Speak.” Let’s practice: “What time of year is it now?” (pauses)
- Speak. What color are the curtains in our room? Speak. What day of the week is it today? Speak. ""
Drawn pictures
Emotions in pictures for children, used for classes on speech development, are presented in several versions: images of adults and children, people or fairy-tale characters. Printed pictures and drawings created by children are suitable for the development of speech in preschoolers.
Invite the children to draw themselves or another person experiencing a certain feeling. Drawing up a verbal explanation for such a picture is a speech therapy exercise that the children do willingly.
If children are not yet able to cope with independent depictions of emotional states, it is worth inviting them to create a collage from pre-prepared and printed facial details. Preschoolers aged 6-7 years are able to recreate emotions on paper on their own, but for younger children it is worth using ready-made templates and samples.
In speech therapy work, you can use not only drawing, but also coloring. Thematic coloring books are a useful and exciting material that is indispensable for girls and boys in kindergarten and at home.
It is important to first thoroughly study with children not only the names of different emotions, but also those artistic techniques that allow you to accurately convey one or another psychological state of a person. The use of pictograms can be very helpful in this regard.
What do different emotions look like?
Anger - the eyebrows are lowered to the inner corners of the eyes, the eyes are narrowed, the mouth is tightly compressed or slightly open, teeth are visible.
Fear - eyebrows raised, eyes widened, mouth open
Sadness - the outer tips of the eyebrows are lowered, the eyelids and corners of the lips are half-lowered.
Surprise - eyebrows raised, eyes rounded, mouth slightly open.
Joy - eyebrows are slightly raised, eyes are narrowed, the corners of the lips are raised.
Calm - eyebrows, eyes and mouth are in a calm state.
Rules of the game “JOURNEY TO THE WORLD OF EMOTIONS”
Children from 5 years old
Number of players: 1-18
Dear parents and teachers!
Here is an interesting and educational game that is aimed at developing the emotional world of children and the ability to feel the emotional state of the game’s characters.
Preparing for the game
Carefully cut the cards along the dotted lines. You will get 18 cards with images of fairy tale characters, 12 cards with images of parts of faces. Cut and glue the paper cube.
Option 1
To play, you will need a cube with emotion patterns on its faces, and 18 cards with fairy tale characters. The presenter places the cards face up on the table.
The order of moves is determined.
The first player rolls the dice, looks at the dropped emotion diagram, names it (for example, sadness) and finds a card of a fairy-tale hero with the same emotional state (Pierrot). If the player completed the task, he keeps the card; if not, he puts it back.
The winner is the one who collects the most cards with fairy tale characters.
The presenter gives the players cards with characters from one fairy tale and gives the task: arrange the cards in order so that at the beginning there is a card with the most pleasant, positive emotion for the player, and at the end - with the most unpleasant, negative one.
Players explain their choice. The most accurate and original answers are marked by the presenter.
Option 4
Number of players 1-18.
To play you need cards with images of fairy-tale characters.
The cards are shuffled and placed face down on the table. Players take turns taking cards and looking at the drawing, and then depict the emotion of the fairy-tale hero with facial expressions.
A LITTLE ABOUT EMOTIONS FOR ADULTS
All emotions are expressed on a person’s face through facial expressions - movements of the eyebrows, mouth and eye expression. Because of this, appearance, depending on the emotional state, changes.
Option 2
Number of players: 1-6.
To play you will need 12 cards with images of parts of faces and 6 cards with fairy tale characters in various emotional states: joy, anger, fear, surprise, calm, sadness.
The presenter gives the players cards with images of fairy-tale characters, clarifies their emotional state and offers to draw up a “portrait” of the fairy-tale hero, describe him using cards with images of parts of faces.
The winner is the one who compiled the best “portrait” of the fairy-tale hero.
Option 3
Number of players: 1 - 3.
Pictograms
Schematic representations of various emotions greatly help children in learning, remembering and recognizing human emotional states. Especially in the early stages of getting to know this topic. Various sets of “Emotions emoticons pictures for children” contain cards with a conventional image of anger, joy and other feelings.
Games with pictograms
Games with pictograms are a whole area in the work of speech therapists and psychologists. Schematic images of emotions (faces) are excellent material for stimulating a child’s speech activity. Here are some examples of using such images:
Pick and name
Prepare pictures of pictograms with different emotions and feelings for children. The task is to find out this or that state, give it a name, and then come up with a situation in which it would be appropriate. Children can use both their personal experience and remember the heroes of famous fairy tales and cartoons. It’s okay if at first the descriptions of emotions sound childish, gradually regular speech training will help these stories become more perfect.
Find a match
If you take a cut set of emoticon pictures and mix them up, you will get an exciting game for a team of preschoolers, which can also be used in speech development classes. The task is to collect all the images. It is important that each emoticon accurately expresses a particular feeling, then the emotion will be easier to recognize and describe.
Transformations of moods
For this game you need to select the following emoticons, pictures of emotions for children, which can be sorted into opposite pairs. For example, sadness-joy, admiration-disgust, etc. Ask the children to take one card or a round smiley face, and then match the selected picture with a pair. After this, you can invite the children to come up with a story about what could turn one emotion into another.
Koloboks
The image of a kolobok is similar to a smiley face, so also use pictures with this character as pictograms illustrating emotions.
Use Kolobok’s drawings on a transparent background, so it’s easier for children to analyze the psychological state of the hero, and not the plot twists that happen to him.
There are many options for games with this fairy-tale character. For example, tell a Russian fairy tale, describing the emotions of Kolobok and other characters. The use of puppet theater or masks will help make this activity productive.
Emotions in the country of Smeshariya
Toys from the cartoon Smeshariki - material for classes on speech development in preschool educational institutions and at home. Images of funny round characters can be used to illustrate emotional states. Buy a ready-made manual or make it yourself, cutting out and signing characters from a magazine or book.
Offer the children pictures of Smeshariki and ask them to name the feeling that Nyusha, Kar-Karych, Krosh and other characters experience.
Didactic game “Emotions of fairy-tale characters”
Didactic games
Upon familiarization
with genre of painting:
Portrait
Senior preschool age
Didactic game “Portrait of a fairy-tale hero”
Goal: Formation of knowledge about the genre of painting: portrait.
Tasks:
— To develop the ability to correctly navigate the location of different parts of the face and its proportions;
- Practice composing a whole from individual parts;
-Develop aesthetic perception;
- Develop coherent speech.
Material: Portraits of fairy-tale heroes (10 pcs), each cut into 10 parts, supporting picture (10 pcs) with a portrait of a fairy-tale hero
Method of working with the manual:
Option 1
Game motive: Help collect portraits of fairy-tale characters
Game situation: The storyteller was going to go to the children of the younger group to tell fairy tales and show portraits of fairy-tale characters. But here's the problem: someone cut the portraits into small pieces. The storyteller asks for your help to collect portraits. She can't do it alone.
Children are invited to help the Storyteller collect portraits of fairy-tale characters
Using a reference card, children collect portraits of fairy-tale heroes, name them, tell which fairy tale these heroes are from, what kind of character they are
Option 2
“Find and assemble the portrait one part at a time”
Children are given one part of the portrait. Children are invited to find other parts of the portrait, assemble it and name the fairy-tale hero.
Option 3
“Who can assemble a portrait of a fairy-tale hero faster?”
It can be carried out at tables, uniting children in pairs or in the form of relay races, uniting children in subgroups of 4-6 children.
Didactic game “Collect a portrait”
Goal: Formation of knowledge about the genre of painting: portrait.
Tasks:
-To consolidate children’s knowledge about the components of the face and their spatial location;
— Develop the ability to identify and distinguish between emotions and feelings;
— Exercise the ability to form a whole from parts;
— Develop fine motor skills and imagination.
Material: cards with options for images of different parts of the face: forehead with eyebrows, eyes, lips, chin, hairstyle
Method of working with the manual:
Game options:
For 2-3 players:
-Collect a portrait with a sad, cheerful, angry... mood.
-Make portraits with the mood of a fairy-tale hero, like your mom or dad.
For one player:
— Make a portrait based on a verbal description.
— Collect a portrait of a boy or girl, man or woman
- Take a portrait that looks like a friend, like the child himself, reflecting certain emotions;
The game can be used for children to compose stories about themselves, friends and to work on the topics: “the world of beauty”, “the world of friendship”, “me and my body”.
Didactic game “What is missing from the portrait”
Goal: Formation of knowledge about the genre of painting: portrait.
Tasks:
-To consolidate knowledge about the components of the face and their spatial location;
— Continue to teach how to convey in an image the ratio of parts of the face by size and location relative to each other.
— Develop attention and thinking.
— To consolidate children’s knowledge about the importance of parts of the face for human life.
Material: 10 cards depicting one person with different flaws. Method of working with the manual:
Game situation
The artist prepared portraits for the exhibition, but the evil Eraser ruined the portraits: she erased parts of the face. The artist alone will not have time to correct the portraits before the opening of the exhibition. Asks you to help.
The teacher invites the children to look at the picture and identify the missing parts of the face in the drawing, and complete them.
You can invite children to tell what function these parts of the face perform.
Didactic game “Magic bricks”
Goal: Formation of knowledge about the genre of painting: portrait.
Tasks:
-To consolidate children’s knowledge about the components of the face and their spatial location;
— Develop the ability to identify and distinguish between emotions and feelings;
— Exercise the ability to form a whole from parts;
— Develop fine motor skills and imagination.
Material: 12 wooden blocks on the edges of which parts of the face are drawn (3 bars for each part), pictogram cards indicating emotions.
Method of working with the manual:
Option 1
Game situation:
«These are magic bricks. You can build different portraits from them.”
The teacher suggests constructing different portraits and naming the emotions in the resulting portraits.
Option 2
The teacher shows a pictogram card and invites the children to lay out (build) a portrait of this person’s state.
3-4 minutes are allotted to complete the task. The chip is awarded to the child who was able to correctly convey the emotional state.
You can invite children to explain what state they depicted and why they think so; children who were able to colorfully talk about this state receive additional chips.
Option 3 “Create a portrait”
Invite the children to come up with and collect as many different portraits as possible. For each version of the portrait, the child receives a chip. The winner is whoever builds the most different portraits
You can offer to name your hero, what his character is, where he can live.
Didactic game “Emotions of fairy-tale characters”
Goal: Formation of knowledge about the genre of portrait painting.
Tasks:
— Develop the ability to identify and distinguish emotions and feelings, convey them in facial expressions.
— Form the idea that a person can show different moods using facial expressions (calmness, joy, sadness, anger, surprise, etc.);
Material: cube with pictures - pictograms indicating emotions, pictures with portraits of fairy-tale characters with different emotions.
Option 1
The teacher lays out pictures with portraits of fairy-tale characters on the table face up. Each player takes turns rolling the dice, naming the rolled emotion, and finding a portrait of a fairy-tale character with the same emotional state. The player keeps the correctly chosen card.
The winner is the one who collects the most pictures with different emotional states.
Option 2
The teacher gives the players (1-3 children) pictures with portraits of fairy-tale characters from one fairy tale and gives the task: arrange them in order so that at the beginning there is a card with the most pleasant emotion for the player, and at the end - with the most unpleasant one.
Players need to explain their choice. The most accurate and original answers are marked by the presenter.
Option 3
The game involves any number of players. The presenter (maybe a child) shows a portrait of a fairy-tale hero, the child needs to portray the hero’s emotion.
