UNDERSTANDING EMOTIONS How Do We Feel? {Floor and Table Top Game}

It is important for children to be able to identify their feelings, as well as the feelings of others. Identifying a variety of basic feelings is the first step in being able to talk about and control feelings when it may be necessary or helpful to do so. For immediate and long term social and academic success, children need to be able to express and control their feelings.

With this fun activity, your students will learn to think about how they may feel in response to a variety of situations and to notice how others may feel.

Do we always feel the same? Can we feel differently about the same situation? Is that okay? Why or why not?

This fun game can be played 2 ways. As a floor game or a table-top game.

The floor game is great for getting your students up and moving. Active learning, with students moving around, is so much fun!

The table-top game is great for small group work and situations where you have little time/space, or are working with students who have a challenge moving around or respecting personal space.

To Play The Floor Game: Teacher puts the Emotions cards on the floor, reads a prompt such as, "your mom tells you she is taking you out for ice cream" and the students move to stand by the emotion that best matches how they would feel in that situation.

Students are then prompted to look around and notice if everyone feels the same way or if some students feel differently? This is a great time for some discussion.

To Play The Table-Top Game: Spread small cards out on a table. Have each student use a game piece from a commercial game or any small object. Play the game as described above moving the game pieces to the emotion of choice after each prompt is read.

Discuss after each prompt.