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Expressing feelings is not always easy, especially for young children.
The process of using words to describe how you are feeling and understanding what that means requires a lot of practice.
Making a feelings tree together will help your child talk about these different emotions and understand how they're feeling.
Watch the video below to see how this game can get your child talking about and describing new emotions.
When I get tickled, I smile!
When you get tickled?
Yeah!
So does tickling make you happy?
Yeah!
Why don't we use this as a feelings tree and we'll make different faces and stick them on the tree.
Aha.
What feeling do you want to do first?
Happy.
A happy face. Can you tell me a time that you felt happy?
When it's my birthday.
Aha.
Hold it up, let me see. Put it on the feelings tree.
I'll put it right up here.
That's good. What's that one?
Sad.
Sad. Can you tell me about a time when you were sad?
When I got hurt.
When did you get hurt?
When I fall鈥
When you fell down?
Yeah.
Where did you fall?
My knee.
Your knee. What things make you sad?
Errr鈥 When you're not playing with me.
Aha.
What other feelings do we have?
Scared. Oh wow, that's a fantastic scared face.
What's another feeling?
Tired!
Tired. That's a good one. So how do we do a tired face?
Aha. It looks like a sad face, because it goes like鈥ha.
[Laughs]
Can I have a turn after?
Yeah. What time did you feel happy?
I was very happy when you were born.
[Laughs]
Which one's your favourite one on that, Adam?
The happy!
Happy? Aw鈥his one.
We did happy, sad, tired, angry and excited.
Sometimes you feel them all, don't you, at different times.
Different times.Yeah!
Well done.Yeah鈥
What are the benefits of a feelings tree?
- Introducing new emotions to the tree will help build your child's vocabulary.
- Talking about how they have felt and how they might feel allows them to practise different tenses and sentences structures.
- Identifying why they feel certain emotions helps them use well-formed sentences to express their thoughts.
- Reflecting on your own feelings can be a great way to help children develop empathy.
- Having a feelings tree allows children to express themselves in a different way if they can't find their words.
How to make a feelings tree with your child
There are many different ways you can construct a feelings tree with your child.
If you have a plant, tree or branches around your house, you could add your leaves to this. Or you can create a cardboard or paper tree.
Ask your child to name a feeling to put on the tree. See whether your child can draw how someone feeling this way would look.
Can your child describe a time in the past when they felt that way? Or can they look to the future and talk about what might make them feel that way.
Encourage your child to use more complex sentences and connecting words likebecause**. This will help themarticulate their thoughts.
Take it in turns with your child to name feelings, draw faces and talk about them. The more feelings you name, the more leaves your tree will have, and the more your child's vocabulary will grow.
Before you finish the game, ask your child to name all the different feelings that they have stuck on the tree. Can they remember what each face represents?
Find out more about your child's wellbeing
- Want to know how to help children understand their emotions?.
- Life is rarely straightforward, but here are some tips on how to help your child deal with uncertainty and change.
- There are lots of different ways to start a conversation about emotions. Why not try dance, drawing or playing with faces?
