Understanding feelings is crucial for young learners, not only for their emotional well-being but also for their social development. As early childhood educators, we need to arm our students with the tools to navigate their emotions. This blog post will walk you through an exciting way to do that – with the Free Preschool Feelings Charades Interactive Game from Everyday Speech.

Related resources: See our full list of social skills activities for preschoolers.

The Importance of Teaching Emotions

Young children experience a myriad of feelings daily. From the joy of seeing a friend to the frustration of not getting their way, it’s a rollercoaster of emotions. It’s essential to teach them:

1. Recognition: Identifying and understanding their feelings.
2. Expression: Communicating their emotions effectively.
3. Management: Knowing how to cope when they’re upset.

Unveiling the Feelings Charades Game

The Free Preschool Feelings Charades Interactive Game from Everyday Speech is the perfect tool to help you achieve these goals. Using emojis as visual aids, students get a clear picture of various emotions. Here’s how it works:

• An emoji showing a feeling is displayed.
• The student then acts out that feeling.
• Classmates can guess the emotion being portrayed.

It’s simple, engaging, and interactive!

Lesson Plan: Embracing Emotions with Charades

Objective: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to identify, express, and manage emotions using the Feelings Charades game as a tool.

Duration: 20 minutes

Materials Needed: A device to access and display the Free Preschool Feelings Charades Interactive Game, space for students to act out feelings.

Procedure:

1. Warm-Up (5 minutes): Start with a simple discussion. Ask students about different feelings they know. Discuss when they might feel happy, sad, angry, or scared.
2. Playing the Game (10 minutes): Initiate the game. Display an emoji and let a student come up to act it out. Encourage classmates to guess the emotion.
3. Discussion (5 minutes): After several rounds, pause to discuss some of the feelings portrayed. Ask students how they felt while acting and while guessing. Wind up by discussing what to do when they’re upset. Teach them simple coping mechanisms, like taking a deep breath, talking to someone, or drawing a picture.

No-Prep Activity Ideas

1. Emoji Drawing: Allow students to draw their favorite emojis and talk about the feelings associated with them.
2. Storytime Emotions: Read a short story and pause at intervals to ask how certain characters might be feeling.
3. Feelings Journal: Encourage students to draw or write about their feelings daily.

Incorporating the Feelings Charades Game into Your Curriculum

The beauty of this game is its versatility. It’s suitable for individual lessons, as part of a broader teaching plan, or even for spontaneous play when students seem restless. The game not only teaches recognition of feelings but also promotes empathy as students engage with each other’s displays of emotion.

Conclusion

The Free Preschool Feelings Charades Interactive Game is a gem in the toolbox of early childhood educators. It’s an enjoyable way to dive into the complex world of feelings, ensuring that students not only recognize but can express and manage their emotions. By incorporating this game into your curriculum, you’re taking a fun and proactive step toward fostering emotional intelligence in your young learners.

Sample Video

Students learn best from watching real students their own age model skills. Try out this sample video-modeling lesson below. We offer our entire Social-Emotional Learning platform free for 30 days here!

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Promoting Social Skills in Early Childhood: Exciting SEL Activities for Preschoolers