Emotions I Spy Sensory Bag

Learning about emotions is something I haven’t explored yet with Adam. He is able to copy the facial expressions of the basic emotions and can recognise when someone is happy or sad. However, we have not really discussed emotions such as anger or fear. As Adam enjoys playing with sensory bags I decided to create an Emotions I Spy Sensory Bag to introduce the five basic emotions.

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When I spotted the Disney Inside Out Eraser Set was discounted in The Disney Store I knew the mini erasers would fit perfectly within an I Spy Sensory Bag. I purchased two packets so that I could create two I Spy Bags. Although Adam is yet to watch Disney’s Inside Out animation I thought the mini erasers would be a great introduction to the characters and their emotions.

The bags were made using two Ziploc bags. I used Nail Varnish Remover to take off the white writing so I was left with two clear bags. Inside Out has five primary emotion characters – Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust. I placed ten erasers into each bag ensuring that each bag had the same number of emotions inside each one. The remaining erasers were then placed into a blue drawstring feely bag.

Next I poured rainbow rice into each ziploc bag. The rainbow rice was recycled from a previous activity. It was made by mixing rice with paint and leaving it to dry overnight.

Our rainbow rice mirrored the different colours of the emotions used in the Inside Out animation.

To ensure that neither the rice nor the mini erasers could come out of the ziploc bag I secured the edges with patterned Duck Tape. For some reason I chose to use sheep patterned tape! The tape also makes the edges more solid and prevents the bag from scrunching up.

It was time to play with our Emotions I Spy Sensory Bag. Adam picked out one emotion eraser from the blue drawstring bag. Adam then had to locate the matching eraser that was hidden inside his I Spy Bag. This involved using his hands to shift around the rice or shaking the bag until he could spot the matching emotion.

Once he had located it Adam placed his eraser on top and passed me the blue drawstring bag. I repeated the same procedure and found the matching emotion within my own I Spy Bag.

During the activity we named each emotion that the mini erasers represented. We discussed what made us feel happy, sad, cross, scared and disgusted. We attempted to make the facial expressions associated with each emotion. This discussion was at a very basic level.

You could extend the activity by playing an I Spy Game. For example “I spy an emotion I feel when my friends do not want to play”. Your child would then have to locate the sadness mini eraser. The activities we play with our Emotions I Spy Sensory Bag will change as Adam’s understanding of emotions develops.

Resources:

* Disney Inside Out Eraser Set – we used two packets

* Two Ziploc bags

* Nail Varnish Remover and cotton wool

* Drawstring feely bag

* Rainbow Rice – you can see how we made one version of rainbow rice here

* Sheep Patterned Duck Tape