Here's an activity that can help encourage some helpful talk about feelings.

Materials:

• Game Spinner
• Non-toxic marker
• Magazine or newspaper pictures (optional)

Directions:

Make a spinner: Cut a 5- or 6- inch circle or square from cardboard or heavy paper and divide it into sections. Make a 3-inch arrow from the leftover cardboard and attach it to the circle using a brass paper fastener. Make sure the arrow spins easily.

Your child can draw a face or paste a picture of a person showing a different feeling on each section of the "wheel." The spinner can include:

• Anger
• Sadness
• Surprise
• Happiness
• Fear

Ask your child to spin the spinner, and pretend to show the emotion where the spinner stops with his or her face, body, hands, legs, and voice. You could expand this by asking your child to make up a story about someone who feels that way.

If you keep the spinner handy, your child could use it to show how he or she is feeling any day.

It may help to remind your child that while we many know some things about how people feel by looking at their faces, the only way we can really know how they feel is if they tell us. No one can know exactly what we're thinking or feeling unless we tell them.

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