Stories with Feelings

Materials You Need: A storybook with characters (people or animals) that have many different feelings, OR an interesting picture from a magazine that you can make up a story about.

What You Can Do Together:  At this age, your child loves to look at books or pictures with you. He or she notices what’s happening in these stories, including that the people, or animals, are feeling different things.  As you read or tell the story, you can help your child notice these and express some of these feelings her- or himself: “The puppy is sad because he cannot find his mother.” (make a sad face yourself) “How does the puppy look?  Can you make a sad face, too?”   Or “I wonder what will happen next?  Let’s turn the page and see.  Wow, the little girl is so excited—it is her birthday.  Can you be excited like she is?”  You can explore many feelings with your child, using stories.

What Your Child is Learning: Your child’s emotional development includes expressing and understanding many kinds of feelings. Story reading and storytelling can help encourage this development. At the same time, reading every day develops your child’s language and early literacy—so important for later school success.