Social-Emotional Emergent Reader

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A big part of early childhood education is developing social skills and learning to communicate feelings and emotions. It can be tough for young kids to identify how they feel and relate to others, so I love to incorporate engaging resources to identify and discuss our feelings like this free Social-Emotional Emergent Reader!

*Pair with our Emergent Readers for Early Learners Mega BUNDLE!

Social-Emotional Emergent Reader

I find it helpful to read picture books about emotions or feelings before giving my students their own books to read and color. Some of my favorites are The Feelings Book by Todd Parr and The Way I Feel by Janan Cain.

Making the emergent reader is a piece of cake! I printed out the book double sided, made copies as needed, then cut it in half and stapled. One set will make you two books in a flash!

After reading related books about feelings and prepping the emergent readers, I gave my kids each their own copy. They loved that the cover says “Colored by ___” instead of name. It made them feel like little illustrators!

At first, we read the book together as a class, looking at the pictures to see if we could identify the feeling based on the facial expressions.

RELATED RESOURCE: Social-Emotional Pocket Chart Activities

Next, I let my kids color their emergent readers and read them with a partner.

This emergent reader contains a repetitive pattern of “I feel ___” on each page, making it a simple reader and confidence booster for kids as they start to track print and connect meaning to words.

Lastly, we came back together as a group to share how we were currently feeling.

If we have time, I like to extend the activity by picking a page out of the book for my kids to act out. For example, I might say, “Show me how angry might look.” or “How might you act if you were scared?“

After we finished, I sent the books home with my students to proudly share and read aloud with their families. They love having books that can go home with them to keep!

Grab Your FREE Copy

Ready to practice identifying feelings with your kids? Grab your free copy of the Social-Emotional Emergent Reader by clicking the large, yellow download button below!

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Alex

Founder at The Kindergarten Connection

Alex is a Transitional Kindergarten teacher with a passion for making learning fun and engaging. She's earned a Bachelors degree in Elementary Education, and Masters Degrees in Special Education and Curriculum Design. Alex is a former night owl turned early bird and playful learning enthusiast. Alex lives with her husband and their beloved and high-energy cat, Fitz.

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