Emotion Charades — Feelings Game Activity Kit

About this resource

Ask students to act out “surprised” using only their face and hands, and the room comes alive. Emotion charades turns recognizing feelings into a game students can see, name and guess, for Grades 1–3. It is one of those SEL activities you can replay many times: a Self-Awareness lesson about naming feelings and reading the clues in someone’s face and body.

What students practice

• Naming eight common feelings
• Showing a feeling with their face and body
• Reading nonverbal clues in others
• Connecting a feeling to their own experience

What’s inside

• A teacher guide with a detailed script and a flexible outline: four timed steps, about 30 minutes in all
• 8 Emotion Cards (Happy, Sad, Angry, Scared, Excited, Worried, Surprised, Nervous) with related feeling words on the back
• Emotion Faces Template: 8 pages where students use a mirror and draw their own face
• Game instructions, a Reflection Questions Sheet and an Emotion Story Prompt; 29 pages

A look inside

• From the teacher script: “If I had the angry card, I might cross my arms, frown, and stomp my feet like this. Can anyone guess how I’m feeling?”
• Emotion Faces Template, Nervous page: “When you’re nervous, do your hands feel shaky or do you fidget?”
• Reflection Questions Sheet: “Which emotion was the hardest to guess?”

How to use this emotion charades kit

• Introduce the emotion cards, then hand out mirrors so students see their own faces
• Play charades in rounds: one student acts, the class guesses
• Pause between rounds to ask which clues helped
• Finish with the reflection sheet or the story prompt

Grade fit

The eight feelings and the mirror work suit Grades 1–3. Older students can use the feeling words on the back of each card.

Good to know

Give each child a mirror for the faces template, and have drawing paper and crayons ready.

Pairs well with

Continue with My Feelings Journal, or for younger students try Emotion Faces, more feelings and emotions activities.