Craft + Connect: Make a Mood Monster

Everyone has big feelings. It can be easy for adults to forget that learning how to manage those big feelings is a skill that we work on throughout our lives, and that for young children, big feelings can just be overwhelming. For children, the first step in managing emotions is learning how to identify them. Simply naming a big feeling can help them begin to understand it, and later regulate it. 

These resources will…give you simple activities to do together that will encourage conversations about feelings, and give you plenty of opportunities to name different types of feelings and how they affect us. 

In this video, you’ll learn how to create a Mood Monster with your child. The video will take you through the steps of creating Mood Monster two ways: with a Sesame Printable page, or using simple craft supplies. Just as importantly, the video will show you how making this craft together with children provides lots of opportunities to identify feelings and find ways to show how we are feeling to others.

One great way to explore emotions is to talk together about where we feel them in our bodies (we might feel sadness as a heaviness in our chest, or anxiety as a knot in our bellies), and how they might affect our daily activities.

In the video, Luna explains that when she feels scared, she can’t sleep. Helping kids make the connection between feelings and how they affect our bodies can really help (when you feel sad, you might cry, or feel more tired). Check out the Feeling Faces interactive for more ways to describe feelings.

Mood Monster Printable 

We all have big feelings, and it is important to find ways to name those feelings together. As you color in and cut out this printable, ask questions like, “What color do you think feels like sadness? Why?” and “What kind of face do you make when you are feeling excited?” 

Once you have completed the Mood Monster, encourage your child to use it to communicate her feelings with you and others. If your child is having big feelings, ask her to put the face on the Mood Monster that best shows how she feels.