Meet the Characters

Show the children the illustration of the main Build Me “Emotions” characters.
Explain to the children that they will work with a building buddy to build one of the characters.

Tell them they will hear stories about the teacher, who is called Mrs. Muffin, and some of the children in her class at Happy Days Preschool.

Divide the children into pairs and assign one of the characters (Mrs. Muffin, Jayden, Jeesun, Maddox, or Zoey ) to each pair of children.

Tell the children to work with their building buddies to build their character.

Place the character models where all of the children can see them.
Tell the children that they will hear about each of the characters they have built.

Hold up each character model as you read its introduction to the children:

Meet Mrs. Muffin
Mrs. Muffin loves the preschool children in her class. She always has a smile and greets them with a cheery “good morning!” She loves to give “hugs,” as long as the child wants to receive one, and she gets very excited about learning new things. It is not unusual for her to bring in some curious little item that she has found in her yard like a flower, a stone, an insect, or a seed, for the children to touch and study.

Although problems do not happen very often at Happy Days Preschool, when they do,
Mrs. Muffin says her “serious face” comes out. One very important thing to know is that when her face looks serious, it is not because she is angry with the children, but because she is concerned.

She is passionate about helping her students act in a way that is healthy for themselves, their classmates, and the whole group. She is always ready encourage them and help them solve their own problems.

Meet Jayden
Here is our new friend Jayden. He likes to follow a regular routine. In the morning, he
dresses himself, eats cereal for breakfast, and rides to preschool with his mom.

Once he arrives at preschool, he receives his morning hug from Mrs. Muffin, kisses his mom goodbye, eats a banana at the snack table, and plays with his best buddy
Maddox at the block center until circle time.

The sensory table is another one of Jayden’s favorite spots in the room, but when his
friend Maddox starts pouring sand onto his arms, Jayden feels uncomfortable and
prefers to go somewhere by himself. Jayden also likes to play with Jeesun, but
sometimes she misunderstands him. All in all, Jayden likes preschool and his
classmates, and he really loves Mrs. Muffin.

Meet Jeesun
This is Jeesun. She loves everything about preschool! She enjoys learning about
many different things, and she is always eager to discover how Mrs. Muffin has
changed things in the room.

She thinks Mrs. Muffin is the most wonderful teacher in the whole world, and this is
one of the reasons that Jeesun tries very hard at every moment to follow all of the
rules in the classroom. She notices when others do not follow the rules, and this really bothers her; it makes her feel quite unsettled inside.

Jeesun enjoys discussing new stories during circle time, as well as making books in
the creator space. Her best friend is Zoey, and they have so much fun playing
together.

Meet Maddox
Maddox is full of life! His mom and dad lovingly call him their “little monkey” because
he is so silly and busy. Maddox doesn’t get upset very easily, but he doesn’t always
understand that some of the things he does aren’t as funny to others as they are to
him. This happens sometimes with his good friend, Jayden.

Mrs. Muffin often steps in to help Maddox and Jayden slow themselves down before
someone gets hurt or angry. She works hard to help Maddox notice that in their
preschool classroom, there is a time to be calm and a time to be energetic.

The gym, where the mats, large balls, and soft climbing equipment are, or the outside play yard are the best places in the school to Maddox because he has the freedom to climb, run, and wrestle!

Meet Zoey
Here is sweet Zoey. She is very easy to get along with. Zoey is very flexible about what she plays. If Zoey wants to use the new watercolor sets in the creator space, but her best friend Jeesun wants to check out the abandoned wasp nest in the science center, you know what Zoey does, right? Yep, she puts aside her own preference in order to make her friend happy.

Usually, this is no problem for Zoey at all, she is willing to “go with the flow,” but lately,
she is feeling the urge to stick with her first choice, even if her friends don’t like it. This is a new feeling, and Zoey is not quite sure how to handle this. She thinks she might need some help from Mrs. Muffin.

• Ask the children to share the characters they have built.
• Ask them to tell how each character is feeling and to tell about what caused the character to feel that way. They can use examples from the character introductions.

Ask the children to work in pairs again and to build a part of Happy Days Preschool.
Combine these different parts into one large preschool and give children the opportunity to play with the figures and the model of the preschool.

Observing the following skills can help you monitor whether the children are developing socially and emotionally.

• Children are able to recognize and name emotions.
• Children are able to understand other people’s feelings.