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Playtime! Activity: Funny Faces

Think you always need flashcards, calculators and textbooks to teach stuff to your kid? Think again. As this fun activity shows you, all you really need are your faces!

funnyfaces

Who It’s For: Kids of all ages

What They’ll Learn: Empathy, social skills, acting chops

What You Need: You and your kid, the ability to move your facial muscles

How It Works:
– Take turns with your child naming different emotions (like happy, sad, mad – or some weirder ones like we did in the pictures below)
– Practice making faces that express each emotion you pick
– Laugh uncontrollably at how utterly cute and ridiculous each of you look

In addition to being lots of silly fun, this simple game can actually help build some important skills. Practicing all these crazy faces can help children to get in touch with their own emotions, and to think about all the different emotions that the people around them might have.

And studies have shown that kids who have a greater ability to accurately read other people’s emotions, take another person’s perspective, and express empathy enjoy lots of benefits.

So don’t feel like you’re wasting time with this little activity – what seems like goofing off right now could very well help your child get along better with peers, make friends more easily and resolve conflicts when they inevitably arise tomorrow!

"Happy"
“Happy”
"Sad"
“Sad”
"Mad"
“Mad”
"Thinking"
“Thinking”
"Pleased"
“Pleased”
"Dead" – don't ask where they learned this one, because we sure didn't teach it to them!
“Dead” – don’t ask where they learned this one, because we sure didn’t teach it to them!

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