In early childhood, it’s extremely important to build emotional awareness and interpersonal skills, whilst equipping young ones with good coping strategies and mindfulness techniques. Expand your little ones’ emotional vocabulary and spark their emotional development with these fun activities, emotion games, breathing exercises, and more! From cooperative games that foster social skills to individual pursuits that focus on problem-solving and emotional regulation, there’s something to suit each and every child!
1. Feelopoly
Feelopoly is a spin on the popular game Monopoly. As players move around the board, the goal is to validate each emotion they land on. Players will learn how to identify different feelings and coping skills, recognize the physical sensations that varying emotions evoke, and validate their own, and others, feelings.
Learn More: The Counselling Palette
2. Feel, Act & Draw
This fun game is best suited to tweens, teens, and college students. Inspired by the classic game, Charades, this feelings game blends discussion prompts and picture-based clues. Players must work with their respective teams to complete the prompts and progress through the game board.
Learn More: The Counselling Palette
3. Feelings Mimes
These emotions mime-it cards are great for visually displaying emotions. Learners will each pick a card and take turns acting out the given emotion as the rest of the class make guesses as to what it is.
Learn More: English Club
4. Feelings Sounds
Similar to the activity above, but this time, to make their guess, the class must rely on the sounds they hear rather than the actions they see. Competitors will each receive an emotion card with a word written on it. They will then act out the word by using sounds instead of actions. For example; if the word is “tired”, students can yawn.
Learn More: English Club
5. Totika
Totika can be likened to Jenga. The main difference is that as players pull blocks from the tower, they will need to answer a series of open-ended questions based on self-esteem. To extend gameplay, open the floor up for discussion by having each player contribute to each question.
Learn More: Amazon
6. The Talking, Feeling, and Doing Game
The Talking, Feeling, and Doing game is a standard board game suited to players as young as 4 years old. It’s often used as a therapy tool to enable therapists to learn more about their patient’s psychological processes and devise the most suitable course of action for intervention; based on the response of the child.
Learn More: Amazon
7. What Are They Feeling
This awesome online game exposes learners to the history of emotions. They’ll take a deep dive into how emotions have changed over time, whilst also analyzing the ways in which people can interpret the same expressions in a multitude of ways.
Learn More: The Emotions Lab
8. Emotions Board Game
Play one-on-one with your child at home or collaborate as a team in the classroom! Each player is given a turn to draw an emotion card which they must then match to a corresponding spot on the game board. If they draw a heart card, they’re encouraged to answer the feelings-directed question before moving to the closest heart on the board.
Learn More: Life Over C’s
9. Play Dress Up
Playing dress up is a great way to get your child in touch with their feelings. It allows them to openly engage with all aspects of their weird-and-wonderful little personalities, and embrace others as they do the same.
Learn More: Empowered Parents
10. Dance Your Feelings
Dance is both a proven stress reliever and a powerful emotional regulator. With this in mind, find a range of upbeat songs to play in the classroom and encourage your learners to dance their feelings out!
Learn More: Empowered Parents
11. Tumble Dryer
Ask your learners to find a comfortable position on the floor; seated with their legs crossed. Have them position their index fingers one over the other in front of their mouth. Then, when they’re ready, they can move their fingers in a circular motion as they take deep breaths and blow out through their mouth.
Learn more: Cosmic Kids
12. Bumble Bee Breaths
Bubble bee breaths are commonly known as Bhramri in Pranayama practice; the control of the breath in yoga. Have your learners sit cross-legged and breathe deeply through their noses. When they’re ready to exhale, have them place a finger in each ear and hum out their exhalation.
Learn More: Cosmic Kids
13. Paper Plate Faces
These paper plate faces are a wonderful visual representation of the emotions we feel inside. Hold them up in class and have your learners identify the emotion that the facial expressions represent as quickly as possible.
Learn More: Empowered Parents
14. Mad Dragon
Help your little ones control their anger with this therapeutic card game. Players will practice 12 anger management techniques and learn how to express themselves calmly; all whilst building a solid understanding of what anger feels and looks like.
Learn More: Sensory Processing Disorder Parent Support
15. Chill, Chat, and Challenge
This emotion-focused game is aimed at breaking communication barriers across generations; helping parents connect with their teens on a deeper level. Players simply take turns answering and discussing questions based on different scenarios.
Learn More: Sensory Processing Disorder Parent Support
16. Anger Catcher
Print out this cool anger catcher template for each learner in your class. They can spend time coloring it in as you host a class discussion on how can control our temper. Learners can then fold their catcher along the dotted lines and use it when they feel a wave of anger, or other strong emotion, coming on.
Learn More: Home Stories
17. Anger Bingo
Anger bingo is another great game for banishing the unpleasant effects of negative emotions! The board presents helpful coping strategies for our learners to use when they feel angry or upset. Play as normal and the first person to get three in a row wins!
Learn More: My Free Bingo Cards
18. Anger Dice Game
This simple game requires players to roll a die, read the prompt or question next to the number that was rolled, and answer it. It’s an excellent way for teachers to get a quick read on their students, their difficult emotions, and chosen coping strategies.
Learn More: And Next Comes L
19. Breathe With a Pinwheel
Teach your learners to breathe using a pinwheel to aid their emotional regulation. When your little ones are feeling overwhelmed, encourage them to take a moment to recentre themselves. They can pick up a pinwheel, take a deep breath, and then exhale through their mouth to blow the pinwheel.
Learn More: Positive Psychology
20. Balancing On One Foot
Body-based games are wonderful for developing focus and a sense of body awareness. While getting your students to balance on one leg, encourage them to practice being mindful of their body, its capabilities, and its limitations.
Learn More: Positive Psychology
21. Social Communication Board Game
This board game is perfect for developing empathy. To play, students are challenged to consider ways in which they can best handle a series of unpleasant social scenarios.
Learn More: The Pathway 2 Success
22. Roll & Spin Coping Strategies
Great for teaching your students how to deal with a wide range of negative emotions, is this roll & spin coping strategy table. Students roll the die, spin the wheel, and then line up the numbers on their table to find an appropriate strategy.
Learn More: The Pathway 2 Success
Friendship Recipe Activity: 10 Ideas, DIYs, And Resources