emo-bits - Bite-sized Info & Activities that Promote Emotional Literacy

emo-bits - Bite-sized Info & Activities that Promote Emotional Literacy

Helping kids recognize and understand their emotions is beneficial for their social and emotional development. Wearing a paren(tee)ing tee or using our products are already creating awareness about emotional literacy without having to lift a finger.  If you're finding your kids are starting to engage with the emotions on our products, this blog is to get you started with simple and easy ideas on how to engage with our products and go beyond them. 

paren(tee)ing tee activities

  1. Emotion Charades: Play a game of charades where each child acts out an emotion from our paren(tee)ing OG Emo tee without using words, and the others have to guess the emotion being portrayed.
  2. Feelings Wheel: Use our paren(tee)ing tee (OG Emo, All the feels) with different emotions and ask the child to point to the emotion they are feeling. Discuss why they might be feeling that way.
  3. Role-Play: Pick an emotion found on our paren(tee)ing tees (OG Emo, All the feels).  Use stuffed animals or puppets to act out different scenarios and emotions. Encourage kids to explore how characters might feel and react in various situations.
  4. Body Movement: Pick an emotion found on our paren(tee)ing tees (OG Emo, All the feels). Play music and have kids move their bodies to express different emotions. For example, they might jump for joy, stomp for anger, or twirl for excitement.
  5. Guess the Emotion: Pick and show an emotion found on our paren(tee)ing tees (OG Emo, All the feels).  Ask kids to guess the emotion being displayed. Discuss the features of the face that give away the emotion.

Beyond the tee activities

  1. Emotion Mirror: Sit in front of a mirror with your child and make different facial expressions together. Discuss what each expression might mean and how they feel when they make those faces.
  2. Emotion Journal: Provide kids with a journal where they can draw or write about their feelings each day. This helps them become more aware of their emotions and how they change. 
  3. Storytime: Read storybooks with characters experiencing different emotions. Pause and ask kids to identify the emotions the characters are feeling and why.
  4. Emotion Faces Collage: Provide magazines or printed pictures of faces showing different emotions. Have kids cut out the faces and create a collage to represent different feelings.
  5. Feelings Thermometer: Create a visual "feelings thermometer" with different levels of intensity for emotions. Have kids place a marker where they think their current emotion falls on the scale.
  6. Emotion Color Wheel: Assign colors to different emotions (e.g., red for anger, blue for sadness, yellow for happiness). Ask kids to draw or paint using the color that matches how they feel.
  7. Emotion Stones: Paint or draw different emotions on smooth stones. Kids can pick a stone and share a time when they felt that emotion.

By creating space to help kids recognize emotions provides them a safe and open environment where they feel comfortable discussing their own feelings. Pick one that works for you and your family.  Set a goal to try one activity out in the coming week or month. 

Back to blog