Emotions Activities to Help Toddlers and Preschoolers Explore Feelings

Inside: You will get tons of emotions activities and ideas to help your toddler or preschooler learn about feelings.

These activities are great for feelings and emotions theme preschool ideas, and you will get tons of free emotions printables!

Kids display an array of emotions throughout the day and it can feel very overwhelming for the child and the parent to know how to help a child understand their own emotions. Learn about a variety of ways you can help your child learn about their emotions with the resources below.

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Free printable emotion faces cards for kids

Emotions and Feelings

Teaching kids about emotions and feelings can feel overwhelming especially when they have big emotions and you as the parent or caregiver have to find ways to help them navigate those big emotions while also staying calm yourself. Helping your child learn about emotions and feelings with play activities and during their every day life can have a big impact on helping them with social emotional learning and emotional regulation skills.

I wanted to create a comprehensive resource for you as you navigate helping to teach your child about emotions and feelings. Check out all of the resources below.

Emotions activities for toddlers and preschoolers to explore feelings

Teaching Emotions

Here are some ideas on different skills to teach when it comes to teaching your child about emotions and social-emotional skills.

  • Helping the child identify and label different emotions
  • How to talk about feelings
  • Teaching kids about healthy expression of emotions
  • Helping the child connect different experiences with emotions
  • How to pick up on the feelings and emotions of others
  • Helping them understand what is happening in their brain to control their emotions and feelings
  • Teaching kids how to have a positive mindset, self-talk, and self-motivation skills

You can learn more about teaching emotions from Proud to be Primary where she has a post about Lessons and Activities to Build Self-Awareness. You can also learn about 9 Ways to teach children about feelings from Kiddie Matters. You can check it out here. The Center for Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation at Georgetown University has a great post with real life examples and situations on how you can teach emotions to kids. You can check out the post here.

“When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone.”

-Fred Rogers

Emotional Development for Preschoolers and Toddlers

Navigating preschoolers and toddlers emotions can feel overwhelming especially since they can have such big emotions and they may not know how to handle their emotions. As the parent or caregiver it can feel overwhelming to help them navigate such big emotions and to help them regulate their bodies.

Something to help you navigate such big feelings is to have a better understanding of their emotional development. You can check out these great resources to help you understand your child's emotional development.

Learn about the stages of emotional development of early childhood here and learn about the Emotional Needs of a Child and how to raise an emotionally healthy child or you can click the pictures below to learn more.

Emotional Development stages
Emotional Needs of a Child

Emotions Activities for Preschoolers

The preschool years bring on new stages of emotional development. They can learn to identify their feelings and express their emotions.

Learning about emotions and feelings through play is vital for preschoolers. Here are some awesome ideas and activities to help your preschooler learn about feelings and emotions through play.

emotions activities for preschoolers, teacher showing emotion card to girl sitting at table.

Emotions Activities for Toddlers

Navigating a toddlers emotions can be challenging because of they can have such big emotions. Helping your toddler learn about their emotions and emotions of others is one way to help them learn strategies to help them regulate their own emotions. Toddlers love to learn through play ideas and the resources below have some great play ideas on how to help your toddler learn about emotions and feelings.

Check out tons of simple, fun, and engaging toddler activities to teach them about emotions that are age appropriate here. I have created even more ideas to help you prepare your toddler to learn all about feelings here!

Emotions Printables

Using visuals can be a great way to help your child learn more about emotions. There are a variety of visuals that you can try to use to help your child learn more about feelings and emotions. Check out all of these great visuals below.

Emotions Faces printable

Showing your child different faces of kids expressing different emotions can be a powerful tool to help your child to identify their own feelings as well as the feelings of others. Adding a great visual can be helpful for them to navigate their emotions and can help give you great conversations with your child about emotions.

Free printable emotion faces cards for kids

You can get a free copy of Emotions Face Cards for Kids to help them identify emotions.

Free printable emotion faces cards for kids

Emotions and Feelings Chart

Helping your child to identify different emotions is one step to helping them navigate and understanding emotions and feelings.

Recognizing and identifying one’s emotions is a very important life skill for your child to learn. Thus, teaching children as early as possible how to identify and express their emotions is an essential part of their growth and development. Asking them every day about how they feel is a crucial tool for improving their emotional intelligence.

Using a printable feelings chart can be an added visual you can use to help your child learn to identify their emotions and help their emotional intelligence.

Get your free printable feelings chart here and learn how to use this with your child.

Free Printable Feelings Chart for preschoolers
Click the image to get your free printable feelings chart.

Emotions Coloring Pages

Coloring and drawing is one way to help kids learn how to express their own emotions. You could use emotions coloring pages to help them navigate learning their own emotions through coloring and drawing opportunities.

Emotions Faces Playdough Mats

Using hands on learning activities such as Playdough activities is a great way to work on connecting with your child and helping to teach them about emotions and feelings. You can get your free download of Playdough Face mats to help your child learn to make different faces out of Playdough. This allows you opportunities to talk about different emotions and feelings with a hands on sensory experience. You can learn more about it here a Fun and Simple Playdough Faces Activity to Teach Kids about Emotions and Feelings.

Playdough Face Mats Printable Featured Image
Fun and Simple Playdough Faces Activity to Teach Kids Emotions
Emotions Playdough Face Mats Freebie Image of printable pages

Games for Emotions and feelings 

Games can be a fun hands on learning experience for your child to learn and explore more emotions and feelings. Check out some of these great emotion games ideas.

Emotions Matching Game

Matching games can be great for toddlers and preschoolers. They can learn the skills of finding things that are similar and different as well as learning to identify different emotions. Check out some of these emotions matching games ideas below.

Get your Free Emotions Matching Game Here!

Emotions Matching Game for Preschoolers to Learn about Feelings

Free Emotions Matching Game for Preschoolers to Learn about Feelings

Emotions Bingo

Bingo games can be a fun hands on way to learn and explore more about emotions and feelings.

Learning about emotions can happen during your everyday activities, but it can also be fun to play games and have fun while learning all about emotions and feelings. Bingo is a game that you can play with your child while also learning a variety of skills. 

Check out the benefits of playing Bingo with your child and helping them to learn to recognize and identify different emotions in a fun and interactive way!

Free Emotions Bingo Game to Help Preschoolers to Learn and Explore Feelings

Emotions Bingo Game Printable for Preschoolers
https://learningforapurpose.com/free-emotions-bingo-game-for-preschoolers-to-learn-and-explore-feelings/

Emotions Charades

Charades can be a great way for young kids to learn how to express different emotions by acting them out. Check out these fun and interactive emotions charades games below.

Emotions Sorting Game

Sorting different emotions is a great way for kids to learn more about identifying and labeling emotions. You can check out these great emotions sorting games below.

Emotions Board Games

Board games can be fun and interactive for older kids to learn different skills. These creative bloggers have created their own board games to help teach about emotions and feelings. You can check them out below.

Emotions Arts and Crafts Activities

Drawing pictures of emotions is a great way to help your child explore and learn about different feelings. Allow your child to draw pictures of how they are feeling and allow them to use their creativity to explain and represent their own feelings.

Another activity could be to use music and drawing. Have the child listen to a song and draw how the music makes them feel.

Check out all of these other fun arts and crafts activities to help teach emotions below.

Don't forget to get your free Playdough Face Mats to help your child make and identify different emotions.

Emotions Playdough Face Mats Freebie Image of printable pages

Emotions Sensory Activities 

Using a Multisensory approach to help your child learn about different emotions and feelings can be very helpful. Try using a variety of senses to help your child learn about feelings. You can check out some of these sensory activities to help you child learn about emotions.

Songs about Feelings and Emotions 

Singing and dancing can be very motivating and fun for young kids. They can learn about emotions and feelings while learning about their body moving as well. Getting your child to move while learning can be a great learning technique. Try singing and dancing to some of these feelings songs below.

Books about Emotions

Reading books about emotions and feelings can be a great learning tool for your child. It allows you to have conversations with your child about different experiences where they may feel different types of emotions. You can talk to them about healthy ways to express their emotions in a calm way. You can check out some of these fun and interactive books to help your child learn about emotions.

Feelings books for preschoolers 

Feelings Books for Toddlers

Feelings and Emotions Theme Preschool Ideas

Emotions Lesson Plans

If you are a homeschool parent or a preschool teacher it can be helpful to have lesson plans and ideas specific to teaching emotions and feelings to your child. You can check out these awesome emotion and feelings lesson plans to help teach your preschooler all about emotions.

Free printable emotion faces cards for kids