• Home
  • About »
    • for Beginners
    • Disclaimer
  • Links »
    • Educational Resources
    • Parenting Websites
    • for Chicago Parents
    • Mommy Blogroll
  • Archives »
    • by Category
    • by Tags
    • by Date
    • Most Commented
    • Most Read
  • Contact

Practical Mama

Practical wisdom and balanced lifestyle for parents

  • Home
  • Parenting
    • Positive Parenting
    • Parenting Fun
    • Working Mother
    • Community Involvement
  • Baby and Child
    • Pregnancy
    • Delivery/Birth
    • Breastfeeding
    • Kids’ Health
    • Sleep
    • Potty Training
    • Kids’ Safety
  • Play & Learn
    • Arts and Crafts
    • Play
    • Books
    • Education
    • School
    • Birthday Parties
  • Home
    • Home Organization
    • Gardening
    • Sewing
    • Backyard Chickens
    • Product Review
  • Food
    • Recipes
    • Nutrition
    • Practical Cooking
    • Kitchen Tips
    • Menu Plan Monday
  • Health & Fitness
    • Health
    • Fitness
    • Beauty
  • Travel
    • Family Travel Tips
    • Chicago
    • International Destinations
    • US Destinations
  • Blogging
    • News
    • Giveaways
You are here: Home / Parenting / Positive Parenting / Feeling-o-meter to help children identify and describe their feelings

Positive Parenting

Feeling-o-meter to help children identify and describe their feelings

By Practical Mama |
This post may contain affiliate links

Pin4K
Share2
Tweet
4K Shares

My son gets frustrated and upset very quickly. He has a short fuse. He always describes his state as he’s “MAD”. Whatever happens, he’s always mad and whenever that word comes out of his mouth, things get escalated pretty quickly.

I explained to him that most probably he doesn’t get MAD in every situation. He doesn’t feel the same level of frustration every time. MAD is like an extreme feeling that he cannot get to in a split second. There must be other feelings he’s visiting, in-between feeling happy and MAD.

We had the feelings poster with pictures of facial expressions but I wanted a gauge looking scale to identify and describe his feelings and range of those emotions. I googled “feeling meter”, “feeling scale”, “feeling gauge”, “feeling thermometer” and finally found this gauge here. Then both my son and daughter made the posters below for themselves.

Feeling-o-meter

We used this feelings-o-meter for a while which helped him get used to being aware of and describing not only his feelings but the range of those emotions. Luckily, the gauge mostly stayed in yellow. When it went up it didn’t always get to MAD or FURIOUS as he was saying before.

It might be harder for boys to verbalize their exact feelings. In my personal opinion, words also impact our self-image and feelings as well. (see NLP) It’s important to be able to use the correct description of the state.

We have this Feelings Poster since the kids were much younger. He even helped me create our own poster by posing as in various emotions.

I’ve recently come around with this “Wheel of Emotions”, which I sometimes get help from as well,  to describe my own feelings. I printed it out and laminated for the kids to review at their leisure. I believe providing my kids with the tools, i.e. vocabulary, to correctly describe the emotional state they are in is going to help them immensely in the long run.

This “wheel of emotions” was created by psychologist Robert Plutchik. He suggests that there are 8 core emotions.

Wheel of emotions
wheelofemotions

I’m curious. What helps you teach your child to be in touch with their emotional state and describe their feelings?

Teaching kids feelings and emotional states:

Pin it for later:

You might also like:

  • Eight
    Eight
  • How I stopped yelling at my kids with this one simple questions
    How I stopped yelling at my kids with this one simple…
  • Why I love reading parenting books
    Why I love reading parenting books
  • Kids' games and activities quick reference guide
    Kids' games and activities quick reference guide

Thank you!

You have successfully joined our subscriber list.

.
« Previous Post: How to get your children help clean-up
Next Post: Good Things & Great Times Jar »

Comments

  1. maryanne @ mama smiles says

    at

    I love the way you are working with your kids on expressing their emotions like this! That feeling wheel is incredible! I think I will print one off and laminate it for my family.

    Reply
  2. Angie says

    at

    I am a teacher seeking help for a student who is having big anger issues. I am going to try this wheel with him because I feel like making it visual will help him. Thank you for sharing. I hope it works because I’m at my ropes end and I need to help him.
    Thanks,
    Angie

    Reply
    • Practical Mama says

      at

      Angie, I hope it helps. It is definitely a useful visual tool to help kids express their feelings. If you get a chance, let me know how it works out.

      Reply
  3. Garry Alexander says

    at

    How can I get a copy of the feeling-O-meter, I would like to hung it somewhere that would allow me to see it at will

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get the newsletter

All the latest sent straight to your inbox so you never miss out!

Thank you!

You have successfully joined our subscriber list.

.


I am a mother of two and a type of person who you would call “Jack of all trades, master of none”. As you might guess from categories, I love my children, reading, sewing, gardening, traveling and cooking. I also work full time so I have to be practical to do all the things I want to do in a 24-hr-day. More About Me


More on Practical Mama

How to boost your immune system for winter
How to make your own bone broth
Record your own lullaby
Sandpaper Letters

Trending

  • Massage for ear infection and earache
  • Packing hot school lunches and keeping them warm
  • 20 Thermos school lunch ideas
  • How to prevent knee holes in pants
  • How to turn flat sheets into fitted sheets
  • How to hack a pull up bar to use as gymnastics training bar for kids
  • DIY- How to build a balance beam
  • Arts & Crafts: Glittery Eiffel Tower
  • Organizing LEGO instruction booklets
  • Is it normal for an infant not to poop for days?

Categories

Archives

Copyright ©2023, Practical Mama. All Rights Reserved. Custom design by Pixel Me Designs