Teaching Kids About Emotions Through Books and Art
Here is a recent discovery that I’m very happy to share with you. It was discovered at my son’s school. I borrowed the book from my son’s kindergarten teacher who introduced me to the idea of using this book to teach kids about emotions through an art project. This kind of project catches my attention. If you have preschoolers, school aged child (kindergarten) you are probably right in the of middle of dealing with the wide range of emotions they exhibit on a daily basis within themselves and recognizing them in others. I love using a book as a spring board for discussions with my children and this book was just so colourful I couldn’t resist.
Happy by Mies van Hout is a simple, yet gorgeous rendering of fish displaying various emotions using chalk drawings on black paper.
Each fish was a great introduction to an emotion. We focused on the use of colours and facial expressions to describe the emotion. Of course if your little one is quick they might answer like this: when I asked Mr. Yoda how he knew the sad fish was sad he said ‘I just read the word.’ Curious was a bit harder but we talked about the big eyes and the colour yellow.
Afterwards, I gave my kids black chalkboard paper and a set of pastels and we set out to draw our own fish. I love combining art and books.
Here is Mr. Yoda’s creation. His happy shark. He was thinking about lemonade and then he is drinking lemonade with a blue straw.
This is Miss Ballerina’s happy shark as well. My daughter loves to use bright colours. I just love how the colours pop off so vibrantly off the black chalk paper.
This is her more worried fish and below is Mama’s love fish. Because I love creating with my kids.
My plan is to get them to draw when they are upset as well. With my kids art can be a mood changer. For mama too!
I would love to hear of any other book recommendations for teaching kids about emotions or art projects you may have.
More book posts to check out are a Rainforest book collection and diorama and An Ode to Early Boys Books
Cheers and lets all be HAPPY,
Bonnie
