A new game to try this afternoon…
Build your children’s understanding of and skills in non-verbal communication and have lots of laughs along the way!
Here’s a fun, short game to play with children of any age, that helps build up a sense of how we communicate with our tone of voice, facial expressions and gestures as well as our words.
Write out a list of emotions on scraps of paper and put them in a bowl. Players take it turn to pick one out the bowl. Their aim is to get the others playing to guess their emotion but they can only say mamamoo (or potato head, or bananarama or anything else you choose that your family would enjoy!) When the emotion has been guessed, the next player has their turn. Here are some suggestions or use your own:
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Shocked
- Embarrassed
- Disappointed
- Shy
- Confused
- Smug
- Terrified
- Tired
- Excited
If you want a more advanced version, try putting scenarios in the bowl instead of emotions:
- Telling a joke
- Saying sorry
- Reading the news
- Asking directions
- Proposing
For older kids, forget the bowl and let them come up with their own.