A Little Help from Buddy                           

By playing with the Mood Monster, you can help your child explore how our faces and bodies express emotions. Try some of the ideas below to spark rich conversations about the many ways we show our feelings. As your child plays, ask, “How do you think Buddy is feeling inside when his face and body look like this? Does that feeling have a name? What are some other words for that feeling? How do you feel inside when you look like this?”

Sometimes I Feel …

Give your child different everyday scenarios, and ask him to choose the face and pose Buddy would use to react to each scenario. Help your child name Buddy’s feeling, and ask her about a time she felt this way, too.

• Scenarios may be:
  • Buddy wanted to play with a friend, but the friend was busy playing with someone else.
  • Buddy spilled some milk. Mommy helped him clean it up.
  • Buddy accidentally toppled a tall block tower that his friend was building.
  • It was Buddy’s birthday. His friends came over his house to celebrate and have cake!
  • Buddy saw a friend he hadn’t seen in a long time after he moved.
  • It was Buddy’s first day in a new school, and he wanted to make a new friend.

Now it’s time for Buddy to learn how others feel. Describe the feelings of another character in the same scenario. “What would Buddy look like then?” “What is the name of that feeling?”

Launch Mood Monster