Play dough mats are a great way for kids to work on their fine motor skills. As they smash, roll and manipulate the dough, they are working on strengthening the small muscles in their hands.
These muscles are what children will use to help them button clothes, cut with scissors and, later on, write.
With this activity, children will be selecting an emotion card and then recreate the emotion, with play dough, on the emotionless bunny face.
This play dough mat comes with a bunny (to make the faces on) and 12 different emotion cards. It would pair perfectly with any spring or Easter theme.
Emotions included in the Bunny SEL Play Dough Mat:
- Mad
- Sad
- Happy
- Sleepy
- Surprised
- Silly
- Annoyed
- Excited
- Worried
- Loved
- Sick
- Calm
Setting up the Bunny Emotion Play Dough Mat
Setting up the bunny emotion play dough mat activity is relatively easy with little prep-work.
Print out the bunny mat and accompanying emotion pieces. Cut down the mat, if you wish to, and laminate. Since, I change out these emotion mats regularly, I simply place them in reusable write and wipe pockets.
Next, cut down the emotion pieces. Laminate the pieces, if you will be using with several children or across several days.
Once everything is prepped, they can be placed in centers or used as one-on-one practice sessions.
On the day of the activity, briefly explain and demonstrate how children can choose an emotion and recreate the emotion on the bunny, using the play dough.
Ways to Further the Activity
While this activity is a great fine motor activity, I like to further it by taking it a step forward. During the activity, I may ask about the different emotions and give hypothetical situations.
I might say, “if another bunny took this bunny’s carrot, how might this bunny feel?” The answer I may be looking for is sad, mad or even annoyed.
Also, I will talk about the different emotions altogether. I might name an emotion and then have them pick the emotion that matches the one I named. Just keep in mind, that sometimes some emotions can be represented by two different images – such as happy and excited, for example.
Where to Get the Bunny Dough Mat
Click the link below to be taken to the bunny play dough mat.