🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 😌 Emotional Self-Regulation — Managing the feelings that arise during activities — frustration when something doesn't work, excitement, disappointment at the end — builds the self-regulation foundation that distinguishes emotionally ready kindergarteners.
• 🖐️ Fine Motor Skills — Manipulating small objects, tools, and materials during hands-on activities builds the hand strength and finger dexterity children need for writing and self-care.
• 🎨 Creativity & Imagination — Open-ended activities that let children direct their own play grow creative thinking, original problem solving, and the confidence to express personal ideas.
• 💬 Language Development — Narrating play, hearing new vocabulary, and describing what they're doing dramatically expands children's language range and the sentence complexity they'll bring to reading and conversation.

Does your preschooler like show his/her emotions? Does s/he like to draw too? Then this preschool activity is perfect and as easy as drawing a happy face. Preschool activity inspired by song Tell Them How You Feel by Princess Katie and Racer Steve from the CD Songs for the Coolest Kids.

What You Need

Piece of square poster board
Markers
Contact paper
Velcro strips
Construction paper
Plastic or paper dinner plate

What To Do

Step 1: On the top of the poster board, you or your preschooler can write, "Today, I Feel..." Cover the piece of poster board with Contact paper.

Step 2: Take the plate and trace six circles on the construction paper. Cut each one out.

Step 3: Draw a different "face" on each circle -- i.e. happy, sad, angry, scared, etc. Fill up all six circles. Cover with Contact paper.

Step 4: Cut the Velcro into one-inch strips and attach to back of circles. Place part of one of the Velcro strips in the middle of the poster board.

Step 5: Hang the sign on the outside of your preschooler's bedroom door, closet door or even the refrigerator. Clip the faces to the bottom of the board. Each morning, when your preschooler wakes up, s/he can hang up the face that is being felt that day. If that emotion changes thoughout the day, s/he can can change the face as well.

Related Preschool Activity

Create Your Own Jeans Preschool Activity
While this preschool activity maybe a little more complex to do, it will be just as fun -- and messy -- as many others. This project allows your child to be creative and to be able to wear his/her creativity for all to see.

Related Preschool Activities CD

Listen to Princess Katie and Racer Steve's Songs for the Coolest Kids while working on this Show Your Emotions Preschool Activity.

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Helpful Tips for Parents - Connect activities to real life: cooking math, laundry color sorting, grocery store counting. Embedded learning is the most transferable kind. - Rotate activities every few weeks rather than making everything available at once. Novelty dramatically increases engagement and play depth. - Allow enough time. Preschoolers need 20–40 minutes to reach deep play in any activity. Rushing to the next thing prevents the richest developmental work. - Keep supplies accessible at child height so your preschooler can initiate activities independently — self-initiated play delivers the strongest developmental benefits. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How do I keep a preschooler engaged when they keep abandoning activities? Short attention span for activities is developmentally normal in preschoolers and shortens further when activities are too easy or too difficult. The sweet spot is a challenge that requires real effort but is achievable. Also consider time of day — activities attempted during tired or hungry periods have dramatically shorter engagement windows. After-nap or mid-morning are typically the richest activity windows. ### Are screens acceptable as a preschool activity? The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting screen-based media to 1 hour per day of high-quality, co-viewed content for children aged 2–5, and avoiding screens except video-calling for children under 2. The quality of content and whether a parent is watching and discussing together matters enormously — passive, commercial, or violent screen content has negative effects; educational co-viewed content has minimal harm. Screens are not a substitute for the physical, social, and creative activities that develop preschool brains. Related reading: See also our pretend play guide and our sorting activities for more ideas on this topic.