How Do You Feel Today?

Have you ever really considered how many different emotions and feelings you go through in one day? I know I, personally, go through more than I can count. There are moments in the day where I am excited about something, angry at something, sad about something.  Although, I am award of the different emotions I feel and can understand what emotions are young children are unsure of what exactly to call the feeling that they experience.  Therefore, a wonderful way to introduce and explain the concept of feeling I have chosen the cute fiction book, "The Way I Feel".
"The Way I Feel", is written and illustrated by Janan Cain.  Not only are the illustrations spot on in their message but the flow or words and explanations of feeling is exquisite.  This story uses all different characters and settings, with the turn of each page, to explain and give meaning to the different feelings we have. One page reads,
"I'm shaking because I am SCARED.  All alone in the dark at night.  The thunder and lightning crash and roar!  Hold me close and turn on the light!"
 This is just one of the many examples this book gives on the different feels we have.  And not only are the explanations of the feelings accurate they are realistic and give realistic situations that any child and/ or adult could relate to.

In order to introduce this concept and make a lasting impression, I chose the strategy f making an accordion book.  Making an accordion book is basically where the child will fold a sheet of paper into an accordion style shape then write or draw something from the book on each individual fold.  This strategy would open up so many doors for children to write about all of the different feelings in the book but as the teacher,for this particular book I would defiantly recommend drawing a picture to represent the different  feeling and giving that feeling a face to associate it with, just as the book did with its illustrations.  The children's explainations and drawings from this book would be amazing.  We go through so many different emotions it would be exciting to have the children share the way they feel about certain things and how certain things make them feel. 

I really enjoyed this book because it is a great read and a fun way to bring about the concept of feelings.  I would defiantly recommend this book and will use this book and strategy in my future classroom to incorporate and explain feelings! :)