Originally Posted by midaycare:
The bucket filling is great and I've used that for years - started it with DS when he was a toddler.
I also use words for emotions all the time, "dcg, those words made me sad." "Dcb, that was a really nice thing to do. That makes me happy." When you teach emotions really well, they start correcting each other and telling each other to knock it off 
I also do a thing with a balloon and ask the kids what some nice things are we can say or do to/for others. As they tell me these things, I blow up the balloon. I tell them this is how we feel when someone does nice things for us - it fills us up. Then I ask for not so nice things, and as they shout them out, I deflate the balloon, talking about how bad we feel when others are mean to us.
I really like the Balloon tip that would be awesome, but my daycare doesn't allow balloons in the classroom.. But I guess we can use imaginary balloons I am sure all these kids have seen a balloon and we can say nice things and pretend to fill our balloons or something like that. lol I'll think more on how I can change it up to fit my classroom. Thanks everyone for such awesome Ideas !!