An Egg-cellent Way to Help Kids Deal with Feelings

An egg-hunt that offers fun with feelings!

The time has come for Easter-egg hunts, and many parents and caregivers are looking for ways to fill those colorful plastic eggs with something other than candy.  I'd like to toss out an idea that will not only be fun for kids, but will also help build their social-emotional muscles...that's right, this kind of egg-hunt may be unlike any kind you've ever heard of.  So clear the table of the chocolates and jelly-beans and grab yourself some colorful paper and prepare to fill your eggs in a whole new kind of way.

Creating your Feeling Eggs:

1.  Cut out small strips of colorful paper.

2.  On each strip, write a different feeling:
     Sad, Mad, Happy, Scared, Surprised, etc.

Put a feeling inside of each egg.

3.  Put one inside of each egg and close.

4.  Hide the eggs. (Indoors or outdoors, doesn't matter.  I've used this at home with my own kids and in  the office during therapy sessions, as well.  Kids have LOVED this!)

5.  When the kids have gathered up all of the eggs, let them "crack" them open and let the "fun with feelings" begin.

Let the kids crack open the eggs and let the fun with feelings begin!

6.  With younger kids, you will obviously have to read out the feeling.  Then ask either, "Tell about a time you felt that way", or if a child is reticent to answer that, ask, "What might make a kid your age feel that way?"

7.  To expand the feelings exploration, you can ask the players to tell about how they might "cope" or "deal" with some of the more uncomfortable feelings such as anger, sadness, etc. 

Ask kids for ways to cope with some of the more uncomfortable feelings.

8.  Be sure to emphasize that ALL feelings are okay, it's what we do with them that counts.

Hoppy Easter from the Spin-Doctor!

Spin-Doctor Tip: Although this "egg hunt" ties in nicely with Easter, I have found that kids have begged to play it again and again, even long after Easter has passed.  Enjoy it all year...and feel free to weigh in below if you have ideas on other ways to extend the play on feelings!