Present education advocates to cultivate “aesthetic” characters. The most important feature is pursuing harmony among society, nature and oneself, as well as seeking the unity of “cognitive-emotion-will-action”. Cultivating children’s aesthetical emotion can lay foundation for developing “aesthetic” characters. Aesthetical emotion is the positive experience and spiritual satisfaction produced by the features of the object while the subject appreciating it. Children’s picture books have two types of features related to aesthetical emotion. The first type is called humanistic aesthetical emotion, such as love and sympathy. The second type is formational aethetical emotion, such as rich color, vivid figures, and beautiful lines. As a result, using children’s picture books to cultivate children’s aesthetical emotion is an effective approach.
There are four fields where we can accomplish our goal:
* Rich experience of aesthetical emotion
1. Choose different style of children’s picture books.
2. Let children appreciate fairy tales, fables, and myths.
3. Guide children to experience emotions included in the colors, figures and language of the book.
4. Lead them to feel the emotional expressiveness of different artistic types.
* Practice of emotional resonance
1. Narrate stories infectiously.
2. Enable children to generate emotional resonance through synaesthesia with the help of music and fine arts.
3. Activate children’s multiple senses, such as vision and hearing, through reading.
* Training of emotional recognition
1. Enrich children’s common words for emotions.
2. Learn how to apply those words to describe different emotions..
3. Guide children to use gestures to show different emotions.
4. Play games of matching.
5. Instruct children to distinguish and adjust their emotions, and gradually learn to control passive sentiments.
* Transference.
1. Lead children to express their emotions.
2. Guide children to learn to feel, comprehend, and distinguish others’ emotions.
3. Learn to be not self-centered, and empathize others’ feelings.
