Emotion Faces for Kids To Help Them Understand Their Feelings
Get your free printable emotion faces for kids to help them learn how to recognize and identify different emotions. This can help them to learn to identify their own emotions and the emotions of others which is the first step in learning emotional awareness and emotional intelligence.
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Using Emotion Faces for Kids to Help Teach Identifying and Recognizing Feelings
Using emotion faces with kids is an effective way to help them identify, recognize and express their own feelings, as well as understand the feelings of others. These are important and valuable social-emotional skills for children to learn. Emotion face cards and faces found in picture books, flashcards, or apps, are helpful tools for teaching children to name and label feelings. As they become more familiar with the emotional faces and their associated feelings, they can begin to practice self-regulation by better understanding their emotions.
When introducing emotion faces to children, it is important to choose a diverse representation of facial expressions so that children are exposed to different types of feelings. Start with these more common emotions (happy, sad, angry, scared, and surprised). Once those are mastered, you can begin to introduce more challenging emotions such as embarrassed, proud, or frustrated.
The next step is to talk about each emotion face and what it represents. Ask questions like “How does this person feel?” Or “What do you think he/she might be thinking right now?” This helps children to better understand the feelings represented in each emotion face.
When introducing emotion faces, it’s also important to teach about the different ways people express their feelings. Some people might cry when they are sad, while others might just be quiet or turn away from a conversation. It is important for children to recognize that everyone expresses their feelings differently.
Finally, it is important to emphasize the importance of recognizing and understanding emotions in others. This can help children build empathy for their peers and think about how their actions might affect those around them.
Using emotion faces with kids is an effective way to help them understand and identify their own feelings and learn to identify and understand the feelings of others. With enough practice and guidance, children can begin to recognize better, express and empathize with the emotions of those around them. You can learn about other social-emotional skills for your child to learn here.
The Importance of Teaching Kids to Identify Emotions
It is important to teach kids to recognize emotions. With this free printable resource, children can learn how to identify different facial expressions that are linked with different feelings. Teaching kids to identify emotions is one step to teaching emotional intelligence. Helping your child develop emotional intelligence is very important. You can read more about it here.
Emotions you Child will be able to Learn
- Mad
- Angry
- Sad
- Happy
- Afraid
- Scared
- Frustrated
- Surprised
- Excited
- Bored
- Proud
- Loved
- Tired
- Nervous
- Shy
- Silly
How to Use the Emotion Faces for Kids to Help them Recognize Emotions
Instructions on how to use the Emotion Face Cards:
- You will want to print out the emotion cards and then cut out the individual cards.
- You can laminate them or print them on card stock for more durability.
- Once they are printed out and cut out you can use them to teach your child to identify emotions.
- Please refer to the activity ideas below for ways you can use the emotion cards.
Emotion Faces Games and Activities you can Play
- Hold the stack of cards face down and flip them over one at a time to name each emotion.
- Place a set of cards face down on a stack. Turn over the top card. Have your child name the emotion and make a face to match.
- Put the cards face down on the floor or table in rows (like you are going to play a traditional matching game) and ask your child to flip them over one by one as they name the emotions
- Place a selection of cards on the table face up (you may like to experiment with 3 at first, and eventually display up to 10 at a time) – name one of the emotions showing and ask your child to identify which card you have described
- Show your child a card at random and ask them to copy the face pictured, then name the emotion together
- Spread out a set of cards face up. Take turns to choose a card but don’t tell the other players which you have chosen. Make a face and see if the other players can guess which card you chose.
More Challenging Ways you Can Play with the Emotion Face Cards
- Choose a card at random from a stack (as if you are playing “Go Fish”) and try to guess what situation the person was in to cause the particular emotion they are showing
- Hold the cards fanned out in your hand, and ask your child to pick them one by one until they find the emotion that they are feeling right now – this will help them briefly consider what the other people pictured are going through, and compare it to their own feelings
- Spread out a set of cards face up. Take turns to choose a card but don’t tell the other players which you have chosen. Tell a short story about a time you felt like that and see if the other players can guess which card you chose.
- Sort a set of cards into positive and negative emotions. Discuss why each emotion is in the group.
- Choose a card, name the emotion, and discuss what you could do if someone around you was feeling this way
- Set out several stuffed animals and dolls and put an emotion card on each one; then speak to the figures as if they were feeling those emotions – this will help your child practice how they can respond to people in different emotional situations
- Pair up and have each partner pick a card they will “act out,” then have a conversation taking on the various emotions – see if you can make each other feel better or share each others’ excitement, etc
- Ask your child to select a card and tell a story about a time they saw someone else exhibiting the emotion displayed, how they felt, what they did (or what they could have done).
- Ask your child to pick a card and draw the emotion they see on the card, or the situation the person was in to cause this emotion – this will help them think about someone else going through the emotion more in depth.
Get your Free Emotion Faces for Kids Here
You can click the link here to get your free emotions face cards with real life photos of kids or you can enter your email address down below. Get the Emotions Cards Here!
Emotional Developmental Stages
Something that is important to understand when teaching kids about emotions is understanding the emotional stages of development you child will go through. This can be very helpful for you to have a better understanding of how to help your child learn at different stages of emotional development. You can learn more about emotional milestones and development here.
Additional Resources to Help you Teach your Child Emotions
Feelings Activities for Toddlers
Emotions Activities for Preschoolers
Importance of Teaching Kids to Identify Emotions
Social-Emotional Skills for Children to Learn
Please share this Free Resource with Parents and Educators
If you found these free emotion faces for kids helpful, I would love for you to share this blog post with them so they can also download their free copy of the emotion face cards.
Get your Free Emotion Faces for Kids Here
You can click the link here to get your free emotions face cards with real life photos of kids or you can enter your email address down below. Get the Emotions Cards Here!