Confidence & feelings
Funny-face toast
- Builds: Naming feelings
- 10 min
- Ages 2–5
- Calm
- A little tidy-up
From the house
- Toast or a rice cake
- A spread
- Soft pieces: banana coins, cucumber slices, strips of cheese
How to play
- Spread the toast.
- Make a face: banana eyes, a cucumber nose, a cheese smile.
- Move the smile to make a happy face, then a sad face, then a surprised one.
- Name the feeling, and ask when they felt that way today, before you eat it.
Fit it to your child
- Easier: Stick to happy and sad, and make each face yourself as you build it.
- Harder: Add trickier feelings like worried, angry or proud, and guess which face the other person made.
Words to use
- happy
- sad
- surprised
- eyes
- mouth
Why it helps
Building faces gives them names for feelings, and having the words is the first step to handling a big feeling.
Grown-up eyes: For under-4s, cut toppings thin and small, and skip raisins and whole grapes.