Store

test 01 migration


Colorful Links & Mirrors Facial Expression Play

Learning Areas:

Overview

What is this activity?

ECSEL Standards

What skills are being enhanced? What knowledge is gained?

Materials

What do you need to prepare for this activity?

Group of infants. Five mixed race baby boy toddlers having fun together sitting on the floor. Flat style vector illustration isolated on white background.

Instructions

Step by step guide

ECSEL Prompts

What questions can you ask to promote ECSEL thinking and discussions?

Extended Learning

How can you extend children’s thinking?

Overview

Support children in exploring colorful links and rings attached to mirrors. Children will observe their facial expressions as they explore and connect expressions to Our Emotions Cards.

ECSEL Standards & Learning Goals

What skills are being enhanced & what knowledge is being gained through this activity?

Emotional Expression

Teachers will support children in beginning to make the appropriate facial expression for each of the four basic emotions. Children will observe their facial expressions in mirrors and teachers will support children in their observations by recreating the facial expressions for the four basic emotions.

Emotional Understanding

Teachers will support children’s understanding of the differences between the four basic emotions using simple examples of causes and identifying facial expression components. Additionally, teachers will support children’s emerging understanding that our emotions change.

Emotional Identification

Teachers will support children in beginning to recognize and identify the four basic emotions (happy, sad, angry, and scared) in mirrors using Our Emotions Cards as a visual aid.

Empathy & Prosocial Skills

Children will share and take turns using materials. Teachers will support children in their development of empathy and prosocial skills by guiding children to look at the facial expressions of their friends.

Cause & Effect

Teachers will provide simple causes for the four basic emotions related to sensory exploration, exploring color, and exploring puzzles. Additionally, children will explore what happens when they use their fine motor skills to engage with and manipulate the colored links and rings on the mirrors.

Problem Solving

Children will use their problem-solving skills to try to move the colored links and rings around the mirrors, remove them from the mirrors, and connect their facial expressions to emotions using Our Emotions Cards.

CASEL Standards

Self-Awareness, Social Awareness, Self-Management, Relationship Skills, Responsible Decision-Making

Materials

Instructions:

  1. Prepare for this activity by finding as many colorful links and rings as possible from around your school or classroom.
  2. Secure the colorful links and rings to your classroom wall-mounted or standing mirror using masking tape. Ensure that the links and rings can be reached by infants of different ages and development (e.g., infants who are not yet standing independently can reach while sitting or crawling, etc.)
  3. Guide children to the play space and encourage them to explore the colorful links and rings attached to the mirrors. Have Our Emotions Cards ready to assist in the activity.
  4. As children explore, label each color on the links and rings by name. Count how many links and rings there are of each color.
  5. Encourage children to try to remove the links and rings from the mirrors by peeling off the tape. Guide children in using their fine motor muscles to pull the tape apart in order to free the colorful links and rings. This will be challenging for babies!
  6. As children explore and attempt to remove the links and rings from the mirrors, use Our Emotions Cards to label and discuss each of the four basic emotions that arise. Support children in observing their facial expressions in the mirror and connecting them to a card:
      • Happy: Look at the big smile on your face! The happy Our Emotions Card has a big smile too.
      • Sad: I see tears in your eyes. Look in the mirror. Do you see tears? Let’s find the sad Our Emotions Card.
      • Angry: Oh no, I see that you screamed and hit a friend. Look at your face in the mirror. Are you feeling angry?
      • Scared: Uh oh, the colorful ring came off of the mirror quickly! I see that your mouth formed an O and your eyes are big. Look in the mirror. You look scared.
  7. Support children in understanding each emotion by providing simple causes related to the activity. For example, “Are you angry because your friend grabbed the ring you were using?”
  8. Encourage and praise children who are sharing materials and working collaboratively. Verbalize problem-solving that you see taking place, such as children who are using both hands to pull the tape off the rings or working together to accomplish this task.

ECSEL Prompts

ECSEL Prompts are helpful questions & guiding statements you can use to provoke children’s thinking about emotions. These prompts are related to this specific activity.

Instead of hitting your friend when you’re angry, let’s try stomping our feet. Let me show you how.

You look happy, but look at your friend’s face in the mirror. They have a frown and tears and look sad. How can we help them feel better?

Look at the big smile on your face. Are you feeling happy? Let’s find the happy Our Emotions Card.

I love seeing my friends working together to get the links off of the mirror! That makes me so happy.

Are you feeling happy because you got a ring off of the mirror? Are you feeling sad because you want to use the big links that your friend has? Are you angry because your friend hit your hand? Are you scared because the link came off of the mirror quickly?

Let’s count all of the blue rings.

Extended Learning

Use these questions & ideas to extend children’s learning!

Extend this activity by incorporating emotional regulation. Support children in discussing calm down techniques for when they experience prickly emotions such as sadness, anger, and fear. Children can use small manipulatives to focus their emotions on an action, use mirrors to observe the facial expression that accompanies their heightened emotion, and use Our Emotions Cards to label their emotions so that they can work to calm down with teacher support.

Incorporate sound and music by demonstrating how you can bang the colorful links and rings against the mirrors to make sounds. Add additional materials to the links to change the sounds, such as bells attached with pipe cleaners (with direct teacher supervision only)

Continue to support children’s understanding of the four basic emotions by playing peekaboo in the mirrors. Cover your hands and reveal a different facial expression in the mirror each time. Label each emotion by name.

Infant – Colorful Links & Mirrors Facial Expression Play

[printfriendly]