Feelings & Emotions Cards
A simple homemade activity that helps children recognise, name and talk about different emotions. Exploring facial expressions creates natural opportunities to introduce feelings vocabulary and start conversations about how we feel.
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What do you do:
Create faces showing different emotions.
Name each feeling together.
Copy the different facial expressions.
Talk about situations that might make us feel each emotion.
Use the cards again during everyday conversations about feelings.
What's Needed:
Recycled cardboard
Coloured paper or paint
Pens
Glue
How to Adapt
For younger children: Begin with simple emotions such as happy, sad and surprised.
For older children: Introduce more complex emotions and discuss why we might experience them.
Make it more open-ended: Choose an emotion card and invent a character or story around that feeling.
Benefits of the Activity
Supports emotional development
Builds emotional vocabulary
Encourages children to recognise and name feelings
Develops facial-expression recognition
Supports communication and descriptive language
