How does your little one feel today? Children’s feelings and emotions are more important than people tend to think. The feelings that kids might experience can shape their views on the world, their family, their friends, and have an important impact on their future self. Also, being aware of other people emotions -as well as their own- make children’s social interactions more positive, since recognizing clues about the emotional state of their peers can result in more social awareness and better relationships. With these feelings and emotions printable exercises, your little ones will be able to practice some of the most frequent sentiments a person can experience.
Moods also have a huge impact on how people complete different tasks and in their overall cognitive process. Scientific studies state that children are more keen to participate, learn and socialize if they are in a good mood, when they aren’t feeling sad or angry, whereas the little ones who are in a less positive mood tend to work less, and learning new contents proves to be difficult in this state. Being aware of these changes and moods, and how they affect an individual is considered emotional intelligence.
A good start for fostering emotional intelligence in children is to talk about what they’re feeling and what it’s making them feel that particular way. Learning about the triggers for their emotional states means they can make sure to understand where the emotion is coming from and how to deal with it. But, in order to do this, you have got to start somewhere!
First, learning visible physical cues about how people show emotions is key. For this, you can use drawings! Drawing and coloring is a great activity for children. Apart from displaying information in a creative, simple way, these activities help elevate kids’ mood.
In the printable coloring sheets, you’ll find seven drawings ready to be painted by your little ones! Each one of these represents either a strong feeling or an emotion, with the most common physical cues that accompany them. First, we have a very scared Elliot the Panda, with big wide open eyes. Then, we can clearly see a very angry Cowy the Cow, frowning with anger and pursed lips. Next, we have a Ricky Raccoon looking very sad, he has trembling lips and a tear is running down his cheek. Now they can see Billy the Chick, who looks very tired: he has closed, sleepy eyes, and it’s yawning. Elliot is back again, this time he’s feeling silly! He’s playfully sticking his tongue out and has a very cheerful look. Now, Bobby the Dog is clearly surprised by something. He has a wide open mouth and a shocked expression, with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. Finally, we meet Lisa the Cat, she’s smiling and looks very relaxed, she must be very happy!
After your little ones finish coloring these awesome characters, you can discuss their facial expressions and how they are great cues to identify emotions. Also, you can practice the vocabulary related to emotions as you trace all the words below the images.
This topic is clearly an important lesson for children, and it’s learned best when the lesson is enjoyable and done in a natural way. Now, let’s start learning with this coloring exercises for kids!
