SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING WITH RECYCLED TUBES OF EMOTION

An emotional twist on the classic baking soda and vinegar experiment. This is a creative twist on teaching emotions for kids and educating them on the various feelings words. Colors can represent emotions and is a wonderful way to help kids build their emotional vocabulary and let kids to talk about their feelings. This activity helps our little ones learn about feelings and emotions and aids in social emotional learning. Basically, emotions are natural and normal, and helping identify them can make them easier to deal with.

Yellow is typically a happy color and red represents anger. This fun visual helps associate colors with different emotions. But also, just because a color usually represents a certain emotion, it isn’t always the case. Blue, for example, can be sadness (like tears) but it can also be calming (like the ocean).

To make this at home activity for kids extra fun, you can give your little ones droppers to practice fine motor skills too. This DIY for toddlers is easy to make with recycled household items.

An extra tip: Add a bit of water to the vinegar to make it last longer. I do 2/3 cup vinegar and 1/3 cup water.

MATERIALS:

1. Recycled Paper Rolls (I used towel paper and cut them in thirds)

2. Black Marker

3. 2 tbsp Baking Soda per Roll

4. Food Coloring

5. Vinegar

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Draw faces with the appropriate facial expression on the front of each paper roll.

2. Stand them up on a tray.

3. Carefully add 2 tbsp of baking soda to each roll.

4. Add a drop of food coloring right on top of the baking soda. No need to mix it.

5. Pour vinegar inside the paper roll and watch it erupt with emotion!

List Of Emotions For Kids

HAPPY

Happiness is a positive emotion that makes you feel good inside. To help your child understand this emotion, point out things that make them smile or feel good. Making the connection between what they’re feeling inside and the word for that feeling makes it easier for children to express themselves clearly.

SAD

Another one of the big emotions, sadness is important to understand even at a young age. Help your child understand that when they feel like crying or they’re upset because something made them feel down, what they’re feeling is sadness.

ANGRY

Feeling angry is normal and expected. It's important for children to identify anger so that they can control their emotions appropriately. Walk your child through various scenarios where they might feel angry, and what they can do in that moment to feel better.

SCARED

Fear, or feeling scared, is another common emotion in young children. Normalize it and help your child develop effective coping strategies. For example, if your child is afraid of thunder, you can say “I see that you don’t like the big booming thunder. It’s okay to feel scared.” Then add comforting phrases like it’s just a sound, you are safe, it can’t hurt you, I’m right here.. etc.