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My kids have been anticipating Inside Out since the very first preview they seen. When they seen the toys at Walmart, they knew they had to collect them all. Fear, Sadness, Joy, Anger, and Disgust…they are all adorable. The girls couldn’t wait to open them and begin to play with them. Each figure comes with a memory ball and Joy comes with the command station. The kids had fun playing with them. We found them in the toy department at Walmart and the movie was located in the movie section.

They also make good tools to teach children about emotions and how they play out in our everyday lives. Kids learn best when they have a tangible object to touch and feel. Inside Out toys along with the DVD are great teaching tools. Here are a couple of games we play based on Inside Out that help to teach kids about navigating the weird and confusing world of emotions.

Game 1 – Emotions On The Brain

This game is kind of like charades. Each child wears a headband with a different color of character on it. Everyone has to act toward the child as they would someone exhibiting that emotion. Such as offering a tissue if they were Sadness or hiding for Anger. I’ve created printable character cards to attach to the head pieces. Print each card and attach tape or Velcro to the back side. The headband can be made out of paper by taping two strips together or getting a hair bow headband.

Instructions:

Setup:

Print out game pieces.
Create a headband by gluing two strips of paper together.

Play time:

Each child gets a head band. They draw a card without looking at it and stick it to their foreheads. The card can be stuck using tape or you can place velcro on the back of the card and the front of the headband to get it to stick.
Then everyone else reacts to the child as if they are exhibiting the emotion on their card.
The child then has to guess which character they are wearing.

 

Game 2 – Guess That Emotion

This game is basically charades with using their emotions. They already know how to respond to emotions by the previous game now they are going to learn how to exhibit those emotions. The Inside Out Tomy toys purchased from Walmart are placed in a bag. Each child will take turns drawing out a toy while not showing the toy to anyone else. They will put the character in their pocket or hide it away. They will then pretend to be that character and each child will take turns guessing which emotion they are exhibiting.

Both games teach children about expressing emotions and how people react to those emotions. Finding out how they express emotions helps them to learn the next big step in their development…how to control those emotions. That, my friends, is a whole different printable… 🙂