This Valentines Day learn about emotions with science

Empathy is important for all of us to experience so that we can relate and get along with one another. Here are some activities that can help our younger kiddos who are still experimenting with how to process emotions and express them in healthy ways! As a theme, each activity touches on one of the following sciences: astronomy, physics, and ecology. 

🍎 Gravity in eMotion, Ages 4+

Gravity is a force that makes objects fall. Gravity happens at different speeds depending on the weight of an object. Test it out - drop a piece of paper and see how long it takes to touch the floor. Now drop a pencil or crayon and see how long that takes to touch the floor. How did the weight of the object change how long it took the object to touch the floor?

💡Play: Falling Feelings

Write different emotions onto little pieces of paper and drop them one at a time, making it “snow” emotions. Try to catch a handful of “snowflakes” and then act out that emotion.

🌧️ Cycling with Sentiments, Ages 5+

The water cycle is how water moves between falling from the sky as rain and snow (precipitation), water on the ground like puddles and lakes and streams (collection),  heating up and going back up into the atmosphere (evaporation), and then becoming clouds so that it can get ready to become rain again (condensation). The water cycle is important because water is needed for all living things: plants, animals, and people. 

💡Play: Emo Cycle

Pick 4 emotions and form them into a cycle, just like the water cycle. Go through a typical day and come up with things that could happen that would make you transition from one emotion to the next.

🌟Constellations of Feelings, Ages 6+

Constellations are groups of stars in the night sky that have stories written about them. They can be helpful for figuring out directions in the dark without the use of a map or technology. A common constellation is Ursa Major, also known as The Big Dipper. Ursa Major means “the big bear” and is located next to another constellation, Ursa Minor (also known as The Little Dipper), “the little bear”. The tip of Ursa Minor is made from the famous star, Polaris - also known as the North Star. Many stories have been written about stars in the night sky since prehistoric times - kind of like the first kind of bedtime stories to be told!  

💡Play: Emotional Constellations

Find a constellation in the sky and choose an emotion. Using the constellation’s character create a story about why that character might feel this emotion. To level it up you can assign each star an emotion and create a more elaborate story.

Have fun trying these ideas out with your little humans and let us know what you experienced and what stories your little humans came up with! Just tag us over @playfollies on Instagram.