Emotion Faces — Feelings Activity Kit (K–1)
A mirror and a box of crayons are all you need to start building emotion vocabulary.
This resource is in the full SEL Resource Library. See what’s included or start with 10 free resources. Have an account? Log in.
About this resource
A mirror and a box of crayons are all you need to start building emotion vocabulary. Emotion Faces is a feelings activity kit for kindergarten and Grades K–1 where children recognize and name a feeling, starting with what shows up on their own face. It is a first step in Self-Awareness, written for early elementary.
What students practice
- Naming happy, sad, angry and scared
- Noticing how eyes, mouth and eyebrows change
- Drawing each feeling’s face
- Linking a feeling to a moment in their own life
What’s inside
- A teacher script with timed steps, plus a flexible outline for teachers who prefer their own words
- Emotion Face Templates: a draw-a-face page plus one page each for happy, sad, angry and scared
- 8 Emotion Cards with the feeling word: happy, sad, angry, scared, excited, worried, surprised and nervous
- An Emotion Reflection Worksheet, a Mirror Instructions Card and Emotion Story Prompts for all four feelings, in two copies
- 25 pages in all, with a short how-to-use page before each printable
A look inside
- Teacher script: “Look in your mirror. Can you make a happy face? What about a sad face? Look at how your eyes, mouth, and eyebrows change.”
- Emotion Cards: eight feelings, from Happy and Sad to Worried, Surprised and Nervous
- Emotion Story Prompts: “I felt happy when… I felt sad when…”
How to use this emotion faces feelings kit
- Open in a circle with the Emotion Cards and ask students to think of a time they felt each feeling
- Give each child a mirror, paper and crayons to make each face, notice the changes and draw it
- Hold a short sharing session where students explain which feeling they showed
- Talk through healthy ways to handle each feeling, then use the reflection worksheet and story prompts on another day
Grade fit
The four basic feelings, mirror work and drawing suit kindergarten and first grade. Among feelings and emotions activities, it is a simple starter, and one of the SEL activities that needs only mirrors and crayons.
Good to know
Each child needs a mirror, paper and crayons.
Pairs well with
Move up to Emotion Charades for Grades 1–3, or read feelings through a book with Emotion Stories.
Questions teachers ask
How long is the lesson?
The teacher script runs about 30 minutes in four parts.
What does each child need?
A mirror, paper and crayons.
More for Self-Awareness
See all in the library →
Every resource, one library.
572 SEL resources for elementary classrooms — printables, digital activities and answer sheets, and every new one we add.
