Emotions and big feelings are tough to explain to kids and also tough for them to understand that it’s really ok to have these feelings. It’s also ok to feel more than one emotion at a time! For us, sensory play is a great opportunity to talk about emotions and big feelings or little feelings. Have you seen the movie Inside Out yet? Riley had quite a few BIG emotions going on inside her body. We used our favorite slime recipe to create Joy, Anger, Fear, Disgust, and Sadness emotions for encouraging exploring these emotions at home.
Inside Out Exploring Emotions Activity with Sensory Play
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How do you feel some days? Can you feel joy and fear at the same time? Disgust and anger? Joy and sadness and fear? Yes, it’s possible to have many emotions and so much so that they spill right. This hands-on sensory play emotions activity explores emotions and encourages kids to talk about their feelings. Our awesome slime allows kids to have a visual of different emotions ranging from Joy to Anger. Explore emotions by combining bit of pieces of the different colors to represent how you feel about certain situations.
To explore emotions with our homemade slime you need our super easy recipe. Use link below!
Homemade Liquid Starch Slime Recipe!
I halved our homemade slime recipe so that we didn’t have way to much slime! I followed the same recipe using a 1/4 cup measure instead of a 1/2 cup. The best time to add color to your slime is when you mix the glue and water together. Once you have thoroughly mixed the glue and water, add liquid food coloring. Feel free to add glitter if you like!
Joy: 5 drops of yellow food coloring.
Anger: About 40 drops of red food coloring {otherwise it can look on the pinker side}.
Sadness: 5-10 drops of blue food coloring.
Disgust: 5-10 drops of green food coloring.
Fear: 2 drops each of red and blue food coloring.
Can you have more than one emotion about a situation?
When you begin exploring emotions with your kid point out how it’s ok to feel a whole bunch of ways about what is happening! We are preparing to move to a new house. My son has only really known the house that we are in now. This is a great opportunity to explore emotions using sensory play. When the hands are busy, great conversation can happen!
My son chose anger, sadness, and some fear to begin exploring emotions about moving. I actually hadn’t realized he felt so much anger about it since he seemed so excited. This was an amazing opportunity to talk about moving and exploring emotions that around such a big change for him. He did add in joy because he can finally have a trampoline in the backyard.
Explore emotions and see how they all connect and run together. Our beautiful slime is stretchy, silky, and soft.
Exploring emotions is a big deal for a child. We have always found that slime is amazing for calming sensory play. It’s one of our ten sensory solutions for at home play!
Every person has all these emotions inside. Talk about them all when you are exploring emotions with your kids.
What happens when emotions become BIG EMOTIONS?
Sometimes are emotions become really big emotions and they run over! We can cry.
We can yell in anger.
We can laugh with joy.
We can hide in fear. We can walk away in disgust.
Exploring emotions through play is a great way for your kid to understand that it’s ok to feel these things.
Sometimes our emotions all run together. Our emotions make us who we are.
Help your child find appropriate ways to deal with emotions. Provide a special place in the house that is comforting and filled with favorite things. This should be a safe place that is not considered a time out or a punishment. Read books about feelings and leave them out for your kids to look through. Sensory bottles, balloons, or even this slime can also be very effective ways to help a child calm themselves or relieve anxiety.
Exploring emotions through sensory play is all about connecting with your kids, engaging with your kids, and understanding your kids. You may even learn a few things along the way like I did. Kids can have a hard time just sitting down and discussing feelings like adults would. Through sensory play and time spent together, exploring emotions with your kids will be a great experience.
We really enjoyed using our sensory slime for exploring emotions this week at home.
How do you explore BIG emotions at home?
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More activities for exploring emotions that you might enjoy.
Emotions Discovery Bottles | Lalymom
LEGO Emotions | Lalymom
5 Steps to Managing Big Emotions | Childhood 101
DIY Kids Emotions Game | B-Inspired Mama
Feelings Activities | Gift of Curiosity
Helping Kids Deal with Big Feelings | Picklebums
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: I am an Amazon affiliate. I do receive a small compensation for any products purchased through this site. You are under no obligation to purchase and all activities are presented at no cost to you!
Lindsay @Artsy-Fartsy Mama says
I LOVE this idea!! Such a great way to teach kids about emotions!
Sue Lively says
Sarah – I absolutely love this analogy for emotions and think it ‘s such a great idea to get kids talking! I’m going to include it in a roundup of similar ideas this week. Can’t wait to try this with my son – I think we’ll talk about how he feels about kindergarten approaching.