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Each year, the Kansas State Library selects a book to feature as a way to promote the importance of reading with young children.
The event, called Kansas Reads to Preschoolers, is celebrated throughout the month of November. This year, the featured book is
“Grumpy Bird” by Jeremy Tankard.
With simple rhyming text, colorful illustrations and a powerful message, this book provides a wonderful opportunity to talk with
children about feelings. Try some of these activities as extensions to the book.
Today I Feel…
Download a free copy of the feelings mats from https://www.fantasticfunandlearning.com/teaching-feelings-today-i-feel-playdough-
mats.html. Provide children with play dough. Invite them to use dough to create a face showing how they feel.
Feelings Bean Bag Toss
Attach pictures showing a variety of emotions to the floor with painter’s tape. Invite children to take turns tossing a bean bag at the
emotion pictures. Encourage children to make a face showing the emotion that the bean bag landed on (or closest to.)
Mood Music
Provide children with watercolor paints, brushes, and large pieces of paper. Play different styles of music and ask the children to
paint how the music makes them feel. This activity is especially fun when you use music with different tempos and tones.
Name That Emotion
For this activity the adult makes a face showing an emotion. Start with basic emotions such as happy, sad, scared or mad. See if
children can identify and label the emotion. Once children are able to name the basic emotions, you can expand to others such as
frustrated, curious, bored, etc.
Feelings
(Sung to the tune of: Twinkle,
Twinkle Little Star)
I have feelings, so do you!
Let’s all sing about a few.
We get happy, we get sad.
We get scared, we get mad.
I am proud of being me!
That’s a feeling, too, you see.
Sharing feelings is great to do,
I have feelings, so do you!
-Adapted by Jean Warren
When I’m Happy and I Know It
(Sung to the tune of: If You’re
Happy and You Know It)
When I’m happy and I know it,
I can __________________.
When I’m happy and I know it,
I can __________________.
When I’m happy and I know it,
My face and body show it!
When I’m happy and I know it,
I can __________________.
When I’m Sad and I Know It
When I’m sad and I know it,
I can __________________.
When I’m sad and I know it,
I can __________________.
When I’m sad and I know it,
My face and body show it!
When I’m sad and I know it,
I can _________________.
*Invite children to share different things they can
do to express each of the emotions. Continue with
calm, scared, mad, etc. - Michelle Gilbert
Here is a list of other books about feelings that can be used along with Grumpy Bird:
• “Bear Feels Scared” by Karma Wilson
• “How Are You Peeling? Foods with Moods” by Saxton Freymann
• “Lots of Feelings” by Shelly Rotner
• “The Feel Good Book” by Todd Parr
• “The Pout-Pout Fish” by Deborah Diesen
• “The Way I Feel” by Janan Cain
• “Tough Guys (Have Feelings Too)” by Keith Negley
• “When Sophie Gets Angry – Really, Really Angry…” by Molly Bang
For more information on Kansas Reads to Preschoolers 2021, visit the State Library website, https://kslib.info/1472/Kansas-Reads-to-Preschoolers-2021
For additional information on Jeremy Tankard’s books, visit https://jeremytankard.com/
If you need visuals to use for feelings activities, there are a variety of free printable resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, https://bit.ly/TeachersPayTeachersFree
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