Kimochis

Kimochis!  No, it is not the latest addition to your local sushi menu. Kimochis are ridiculously adorable, plush toys that children use to learn emotions and to become  better communicators of their feelings.

I was introduced to theses cute little guys at the Social Thinking conference I attended a few months ago. I immediately thought they were adorable! As I listened to how they were used with various age group in tons of way, I knew I had to learn more. The more I learned the more I loved them!

There are characters all have different qualities. Cloud is moody; one moment he is happy, the next he is mad. Bug is thoughtful, but cautious and is afraid of change. Huggtopus loves to love everyone but can have a hard recognizing peoples boundaries. These are just a few of the characters available. Each character comes with 3 Kimochis feelings and background information about their personalities and favorite things right down to they favorite food. This helps kids relate to the characters. I have Cloud. I picked him because I thought a lot of my students could relate to his personality.  His head can rotate to show a happy face or sad face.

Now the cute little guys are Kimochis feelings. There are 29 different emotions. They have the emotion written on one side and a corresponding expression on the other. There are lots of different ways to use them. My kids like to play Kimochis charades.  Students choose a Kimochi from a bowl and have to act out the emotion. It has been a great game to play! The students need to be aware of their body language and facial expressions and adapt them if the other students are not guessing the correct emotion. I have also used them when a student has been having a rough day and has no interest in telling me what is making them mad, but, they will tell Cloud. Kimochis have been great in offering an alternative for my kids who can be reluctant to communicate.

While using the Kimochis I found that they pair really well with my A Colorful You book! Many of the colors I use to represent emotions match the colors that they have used on some of their Kimochis 🙂

Kimochis were created by a group a talented individuals, one of which was an SLP! They have a done a great job creating such a unique tool to help target such a challenging area. They even have an Teacher Tool Kit. This kit has it all! It comes with all the 5 characters, 29 Kimochis feelings, and nearly 300 page book with information and lessons for social emotional learning for early childhood and elementary. You can check out an expert from the book HERE.

Kimochis have a few freebies on their site. I would highly recommend taking a look!

What do you think of Kimochis? Have you used them?