Magnutto Make-A-Mood Jr.

Product Description

Cognitive 5

Skills

• Players learn and strengthen their ability to interpret emotions as displayed on the activity card or through the board faces or facial expressions created by a play partner.
• Players learn to translate auditory or written words into a pictorial representation by selecting appropriate facial features that match the words’ meaning (smile for “happy”, frown for “sad”, etc.)
• Players learn to strengthen understanding of part-to-whole relationships through assembling a complete, expressive face through an assortment of magnetic facial features, accessories and background elements.

Play Ideas

• Develop emerging math skills by directing participant to select a specified number of pieces to create a face. Facilitator and participant count out the pieces together to make sure they counted correctly before placing on easel.
• To strengthen part-to-whole relationship comprehension, facilitator will roll a die and instruct participants to select the matching number of one category of facial feature (mouth, eyes), accessory (hat, bow), or background element.
• Foster participants’ spelling and language development through a game of Magnutto Hangman. On the easel, a facilitator or peer creates a face with an easily recognizable emotion, and draws the Hangman board on a separate dry-erase board or piece of paper. Instruct participants to guess letters to spell the emotion reflected on the easel before the wrong letter guesses draw the Hangman.

Adaptation Ideas

• For participants who have difficulty recognizing facial features out of context, divide the foam pieces into plastic containers by categories to facilitate ease of use.
• For participants who have difficulty recognizing facial features out of context, facilitator assigns specific foam pieces to participants to hold up on their own face and look into a mirror for context.

Communicative 5

Skills

• The activity card promotes expressive and receptive language development as the child and partner discuss the written or illustrated emotions, or create phrases that might be associated with the emotion displayed.
• The selection of different face characteristics and accessories to create complete faces on the magnetic easel offers promotes creative, non-verbal expression of emotions.
• Through unrestricted face creation, players are encouraged to create and communicate their own stories and scenarios relating to the magnetic board.

Play Ideas

• Facilitate development of expressive language and narrative skills by instructing participant to develop a story about the face or faces created on the easel. For instance, participant will give a name to the face(s) and describe his / her background such as where he / she lives, or places he / she wants to visit. Record narrative to preserve the participant’s story for future reflection or development.
• To promote the development of written expression, after participant creates a face on the easel, instruct him / her to draw a picture of the face on a piece of paper and write a sentence or phrase that describes the emotion expressed and a reason for the emotion.
• Facilitate the development of receptive language skills by reading passages from a book that describe characters reacting emotionally to a situation. Instruct participant to interpret the character(s) emotions by creating their expressions on the easel.

Adaptation Ideas

• Take and utilize photographs of the player making expressions that he / she then recreates on the magnetic easel. Alternatively, the player can take pictures of others making expressions and recreates them on the easel.

Social/Emotional 5

Skills

• Through creating faces with different expressions, either in response to a play partner naming an emotion from the activity card or child creating his / her own, the ability to identify and discuss emotions of others is promoted.
• Players strengthen nonverbal communication skills by mimicking the card or magnetic face to express the desired emotion.
• Through the use of learning questions ("When someone is feeling scared, how do they look? How do they act? What should I do?") in association with the matching faces, players practice how to relate to or empathize with others who are faced with those emotions. Players can also practice how they will act when they are feeling the emotions discussed throughout the game.

Play Ideas

• To facilitate the development of interpretation and comprehension of non-verbal cues, play a game of “Match my Face”. One participant selects a face from the expressions activity card and recreates it on his / her own face.  The play partner will then mimic the expression on his / her face, recreate it on the easel, and then name the emotion / feeling.
• To facilitate the development of empathy and teamwork, assign play partners to independently select facial expressions from the activity card and create them on the easel out of sight from their partner by placing cardboard perpendicular to the easel in between the faces. Facilitator removes the cardboard, and the partners must work together to develop a narrative as to how the faces relate to one another.
• To support the development of insight and ability to self-reflect, following the end of emotionally-charged activities such as a school day, play date, team sport practice, or therapy session, instruct participant to create a face on the easel that expresses the predominate feeling at the conclusion of the activity. Give participant the option for recording the face and writing a sentence about the experience.

Adaptation Ideas

• Gradually introduce facial features that introduce certain emotions that the player might be more apprehensive about utilizing or discussing.