Free Printable Feelings Chart to Help Preschoolers Identify and Learn about Emotions

Inside: You can get a free printable feelings chart to help your preschooler learn to identify different emotions.

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.

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Free Printable Feelings Chart

Helping your child to identify different emotions is one step to helping them navigate and understanding emotions and feelings. You can use a feelings chart to help them identify their own emotions and then working on identifying others emotions as well.

How to Use the Printable Feelings Chart

One way that I like to use the printable feelings chart with my son and daughter is I print it out and laminated it so that it was more durable and easily accessible. I have one located in the kitchen by the fridge and one in the playroom. I felt like those were some areas of the house where some of the big emotions occur.

I sometimes use it with my kids to have a quick check in during the day (it could be in the morning, afternoon, or evening) and as them questions about how they are feeling. I can bring out the chart and show them different feelings and emotions to help spark a conversation with them.

Another way we have used the feelings poster is by using it as a way to act out different emotions. I can point to a feeling picture and then we each act out that emotion.

We have also had some great conversation starters by looking at the different emotions. My son may point to an emotion picture and then we can talk about different times we have felt that emotion. For example if he points to the silly emotion I love to bring up stories of when I thought he was silly and he loves to try to re-create those silly moments.

Or if he points to the frustrated emotion, I can share a stories of different times he may have felt frustrated like when his sister takes his toys or even times when I have felt frustrated by a big mess.

I love having open conversations about all types of emotions and sharing with my kids the emotions that I feel as well so that they can see that mom has lots of emotions as well. That all emotions are valid and that we can all experience a wide range of emotions. That I am there for them when their emotions are big and I will help them through whatever emotion they are feeling.

When little people are overwhelmed by big emotions, it's our job to share our calm not join their chaos.”

L.R. Knost

Materials you will need:

• The feelings chart
• printer
• laminator or clear pouches

I like to print out the feelings chart and laminate it or place it in the clear protector pages to help keep it more durable. Then I place it around the house in an area where I can access it with my kids.

Get your Free Printable Feelings Chart Here

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How to Help your Child Learn about Feelings and Emotions

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.

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. 

You can learn about emotional development and a child's emotional needs here.

Related: Other Awesome Feelings and Emotions Activities for Kids

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.

Get your Free Printable Feelings Chart Here