Thoughtful Thursday: How do you teach a toddler to express themselves?

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So... we're on Easter Holidays now, right?

For the past two weeks Jeremiah has been having hissy fits at the end of the nursery day. If you've been following my blogs.. I had a moment in time where Jeremiah was having hissy fits when I would drop him off to nursery, lol.

But in particular, the reason why he was having the hissy fits is because he has a new key person, (well she's more of an assistant to the key person) but he likes her, and is attached to her to the point where if she leaves his sight, he gets upset...

So now when the nursery day is over, he is literally kicking and screaming and throwing things! But funnily enough, he isn't doing it because he's angry.. he's doing it because he doesn't want to leave the school and the teacher. (That's how I see it anyway)
So I need to teach Jeremiah how to express himself; because he's not familiar with saying things like "I'll miss you" or "I don't want to leave my teacher", you know those kinds of things that express some serious emotion... so instead he'll cry and scream.

I can most definitely model the language for Jeremiah.. but he knows how he is feeling.. so how do I get him to understand that and then also understand the language he has to use?
I told Jeremiah the second day that it happened, "Jeremiah, if you like someone, you don't throw things at them; you give them a hug, or a high five ok?" he nodded.

I'm sure he understood.. but I'll have to keep reminding him. I'm still working with him on the expressive language.. but this is a little more complex than being 'sad' or being 'angry'.. and I guess that is the whole progression in toddlers... having to now process these bigger feelings and figuring out how to understand them.

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