Teaching Kids about Feelings and Manners

     While I was a preschool teacher, I would constantly teach young children about emotions and manners. Young children are very egocentric, and need help understanding the feelings of others.
To help them learn to understand, it is best to present scenarios to the child. Ask him or her, how he or she might feel if they had experienced something similar in the story shared.
     It is best to provide a visual, when presenting these scenarios. This will help keep the child's attention. In order to do this, I have used one paper plate and some markers. I have drawn one single face, but have made the facial structures to switch from a happy face to a sad face based on how the plate is turned. I will admit that there have been times, when I cannot get the face to look both happy and sad. In this case, I would provide two plates. Make one plate a happy face, and another a sad face.


I would suggest that after each story has been shared to hold up each plate, and ask the child- "How would this make you feel? Would it make you happy (hold up the happy face), or would it make you sad?" (hold up the sad face). This activity will help the child problem solve, and use their critical thinking skills to decide how they would feel in a similar situation.