Free Emotions Matching Game for Preschoolers to Learn about Feelings

Inside: Get your free emotions matching game to help preschoolers learn to identify and recognize emotions and feelings.

Teaching kids about emotions can feel overwhelming at times, but using this fun and hands-on learning activity can provide an excellent opportunity for you to talk about feelings with your child. You can help them improve their social-emotional skills.

Free Emotions Matching Game

You will want to get your free download of the emotions matching game which you can have emailed to you.

Then you will want to use:

• paper or cardstock

• laminator if you want them to be more durable

• scissors to cut out the pieces

How to Play the Emotions Matching Game

How to set the game up:

• Print out the Emotion Matching cards. Make sure to print doubles of each emotion card.
• You may want to print on cardstock and laminate them to increase durability.
• If you want I included a baking pattern for the matching cards to keep the images from showing through on the back side.
• Re-insert the card sheets into the printer and print the backing paper on to the reverse side of these pages.
• Cut out the cards with scissors.

How to Play the Emotions Matching Game

• To play the game you will want to spread out all of the cards facing down.
• Take turns turning over two cards at a time.
• If you find a match, you keep that pair of cards.
• Whoever finds the most matches wins the game.

What your Child can Learn from the Emotions Matching Game

This is a fantastic emotions-matching game for strengthening memory skills, focus, cognitive thinking, and more! Not to mention the excellent way it can help you discuss emotions with your children.

You can help your child:

• Learn to identify their own feelings
• Identify the feelings of others
• learn to read body language
• help with their focus and attention
• turn taking skills
• cognitive memory skills
• following directions

Additional Ways you can Play with the Emotions Card

1. Making Faces
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.

2. Guess the Emotion
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.

3. The Way I Feel Story Game 
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.

4. Positives and Negatives
Sort a set of cards into positive and negative emotions. Discuss why each emotion is in the nominated group.

5. Supporting Our Friend’s Emotions
Choose an negative emotion and talk about ways to speak to and support someone who we can see feels this way. Practice saying these words by role playing being a friend who supports the emotions of others.

Get your Free Emotions Matching Game Here

Enter your email address below to get your free emotions matching game that you can play with your child at home or use in your classroom with your students!

Emotional Development in 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 better understand their emotional development. You can check out these great resources to help you understand your child's emotional development.

You can learn all about the emotional stages of development and the emotional needs of a child here.

How to Teach Emotions and Feelings to Preschoolers and Toddlers

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

• 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.

Related: Other Emotions Activities to help Teach Preschoolers and Toddlers all about Feelings

Check out these other Feelings Activities for preschoolers that you can use in your home or in your classroom!

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. 

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

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.

Emotions and Feelings Chart

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.