Time To Talk Day
Hello! My name is Gemma and I am a children’s author, teacher and a mum. Do you like to talk? Some people talk a lot, like me! Others like talking less and that’s ok. It is important to talk about how we feel so today we are going to be thinking about our emotions and how we can share that with others.
Talk about Feelings
How many different emotions can you think of? In this activity, talk to your grown up about feelings that you know and then make these ‘feeling faces’ using play doh.
This activity will help your child to explore different emotions and learn vocabulary associated. Talk to your child about whether these are nice emotions or not and explore strategies to deal with unpleasant feelings such as anger.
My Favourite Things
Have a think about all of your favourite things and share with your grown up. You could ask them questions to find out more about their likes and dislikes.
This activity will help your child to explore different emotions and learn vocabulary associated. Talk to your child about whether these are nice emotions or not and explore strategies to deal with unpleasant feelings such as anger.
Things that make me happy and sad
Talk to your grown up about what makes you feel happy and sad. Once you have done this you could put them in order from happiest to saddest or think about what similarities and differences you both have.
Exploring feelings is an important part of development. Help your child to understand the difference between sadness and anger as and happiness and excitement as they think of their ideas.
Role Play – Talking on the telephone
Being a good communicator is all about talking and listening. In this activity we will be having a ‘pretend’ phone conversation with one of our friends. You can be whoever you want to be, perhaps a character from a story, a doctor or nurses, or maybe one of your friends from nursery or school. Practise asking each other questions and listening carefully to the answers. I have included some to help you.
This activity will help your child to develop their speaking and listening skills. Phrasing questions is a difficult skill which your child may need some help with. You could talk about closed and open questions. Role play will help them to practise speaking in different contexts. Have fun!
Extension
If you want to do a bit more, try learning some greetings from another language. Try French, Mandarin, Italian or Russian!