Feelings Treasure Hunt
Silly
Kids are silly at heart! It is a natural part of their growth and development. Feeling silly often results in laughter, which is joy that simply bursts out of you. When a child is feeling joy, they are not feeling pain, neglect, confusion, self doubt, stress or fear. As parents, we often feel like we need to curb our children’s silly feelings and actions so that they can act more appropriately. We need to remember that feeling and acting silly is a natural part of being a child. So rather than squelching silly feelings, maybe we need to think about joining in more often!
When we model acting silly and having fun we show our children that life can be fun, joyous, and happy. We give them the message that they are in a safe place full of security and acceptance. Feeling and acting silly helps our children to learn that although life is serious and sometimes scary, if you can have fun along the way the problems don’t seem as serious. Instead of seeing a difficult situation as dire, they might learn to see the humor in the situation and then things won’t seem so bad.
As you intentionally find ways to feel and act silly with your children you will notice another benefit...a stronger bond will grow between you! Feeling and acting silly with our children meets them where they are and sends a clear message that we enjoy them. You will notice the benefits for yourself as well...stress relief, relaxation and feeling close with your child. It is definitely a win/win! So go ahead and feel silly with your child. You’ll be glad you did.
Pot o’ Gold...
Find a small pot or jar and decorate it if you wish.
Find something small that can be the “gold” to add to your “pot” such as pennies, gummies, fish crackers, etc.
During the week, each time you notice or talk about feeling “silly” be sure to add a piece of “gold” to the pot.
At the end of the week, you can count/eat the “gold” as you reflect on the “silly” feelings that you noticed all week long.
NOTICE and LABEL “Silly” Throughout the Week
Watch for times when your child looks like they are feeling silly. Talk about how they feels and why? What does their face look like? What does their body feel like?
Notice (or recall) times when you yourself feel silly and “talk aloud” about it with your child. Talk about what has made you feel silly. Point out how your face looks and how your body looks and feels when you are feeling silly.
Don’t forget to notice and talk about characters on TV and in books who are feeling silly. Ask your children how they know the character is silly and why they think he/she might be feeling silly.
Activities
Play “Silly” with Stuffed Animals
Together with your child choose some stuffed animals, puppets or dolls.
You might model this activity for your child by choosing a toy and making it say for example, “It looks like your bear is having fun. Is he feeling silly?” Encourage your child to think about how the toy would be acting and sounding silly.
Then invite your child to have the stuffed animals/puppets/dolls act silly and make up a story about why they are feeling silly.
Follow your child’s lead, but as opportunities arise encourage your child to think about how the puppets/animals/dolls body might be feeling and ways to help it feel better.
Act out Silly in Pretend Play Scenarios
Pretend play is a great place to talk about emotions.
Join in your child’s play and use emotions to talk about the stories they are creating! ("I wonder if your baby is feeling silly right now?")
Play Feelings Follow the Leader
Pick one child to be the Leader.
The Leader gets to pick a feeling. Be sure at some point to include “silly” because it is the focus feeling for this week’s treasure hunt.
The person who is the Leader gets to share their feeling word and tell about a time when he/she felt that way.
Then the Leader can choose a way to walk and act out the feeling word.
Everyone else follows the Leader and acts out feeling word behind him/her in a line.
Variation on the Feelings Hunt Game
Use the same feelings cards you created for the Feelings Hunt Game above.
Hide the cards around the house.
Have your child look for the feelings cards.
Whoever finds the “silly” feeling face is the winner.
The winner gets to pick a silly face or action for everyone to do.
OR the winner gets to act silly and try to make everyone else laugh.
Be sure to talk about how it silly feels and looks and about other times when you or your child have felt “silly.”
Ring Toss Feelings Game
Gather paper plates, paper cups and a marker.
Draw a different feeling face on the bottom of each paper cup. Be sure to draw a silly face because it is the focus feeling for the week.
Cut the centers out of paper plates to make a ring for each player.
Toss the plates to ring an emotion.
As emotions are rung have your child tell you about a time when he/she felt that emotion. Talk about how their faces and bodies looked when they felt the emotion. If it was a strong emotion, what helped your child to feel better.
Play Simon Says “Feelings”Game
Play Simon says with the children substituting feeling phrases for the usual directions. For example, say: “Simon says, look silly.”
In between commands, you can ask them questions about those feelings, such as “What makes you feel silly?” “How does your body look and feel when you are silly? Does it always feel good to feel silly?”
Be sure to review the feelings already talked about in this Feelings Treasure Hunt Series. (calm, angry, happy worried, excited, lonely, surprised and sad)
Feelings Book
Talk with your child about times when they have felt silly.
Show each other what your silly face looks like.
Either take a picture of your child’s silly face and print it or have your child draw her silly face. (Use a mirror if your child is going to draw his/her face.)
Protect the picture by slipping it into a plastic baggie (quart size works well).
You can also make calm, angry, happy, worried, excited, lonely, surprised and sad face pages to add to your book. (These are the feelings previously talked about in this series.)
As you learn about new emotions don’t forget to add those pages to your book. You can tape the baggies together along the plastic seal to create the binding of your book using duct tape or packaging tape.
Read your feelings book often. Try to help your child remember times when he/she felt that feeling and share times when you felt the same way.
More Activities
Rock Feeling Faces
Download and print the feelings face parts from Right Brained Mom. Human Facial Features
Or you could cut out eyes, noses, mouths out of magazines.
Gather as many smooth rocks as you can find or purchase some from the local dollar store.
Use Mod Podge to glue a facial feature onto each rock.
Once the rocks are dry encourage your child to use the rocks to create feeling faces.
Be sure to create silly faces and talk about things that make you and your child feel silly.
Talk about how your face and body might look when you are feeling silly.
Don’t forget to have fun and be silly!
Make silly faces in the Mirror
Stand in front of a mirror and practice making silly faces with your child.
Try to make each other laugh.
Next try doing silly things with your bodies and try to make each other laugh.
Talk about how your bodies feel when you are feeling silly.
Shaving Cream Silly Faces
Gather shaving cream, food coloring and paper towels.
Give your child a squirt of shaving cream on a clean surface. Add a drop of food coloring if desired.
Tell your child to think of a time when he/she was silly or someone they knew was silly.
Talk about what their face looked like.
Encourage them to draw silly eyes and a silly mouth.
Challenge them to make different silly faces in the shaving cream.
Do all silly faces look the same?
Feelings Hunt
Create some feeling face cards by drawing some simple ones with your child or by printing some free images off of your computer.
Hide the cards around the house.
Have your child look for the feelings cards.
As cards are found take turns either making the face on the card or telling a story about a time when you had the same feeling.
Be sure that you have “silly” as one of the feeling cards as well as other feelings you have talked about with your child.
Play dough Feeling Mat
Gather play dough, a mirror, paper bags, plates and or construction paper.
Draw the outline of a head on a paper plate, paper bag or construction paper.
If you have access to a laminator you might laminate your face outline to use over and over again. Or you might try contact paper, clear packaging tape or using a large plastic baggie or page protector to protect the face. If you don’t have a way to protect the face outline, just make a new one the next time you want to do the activity.
Encourage your child to think about a time when they felt silly. Provide a mirror and have your child try to make a silly face in the mirror. Talk about what his/her mouth and eyes look like when they are feeling silly and encourage them to create a silly face on their playdough face mat.
Try this same activity creating faces that look calm, angry and happy, worried and excited, lonely, surprised and sad as a review of previous emotions. Be sure to talk about how faces and bodies look and feel as well as times when your child has felt these emotions.