Disclaimer: This page contains affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase after clicking a link, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thank You for your support.

Hello Beautiful Moms!

Today, I want to share my 3 favourite Engaging and Interactive Children’s Activities for Teaching Emotion Recognition that I love and use in my kindergarten classroom.

If your child has frequent meltdowns or tantrums because they cannot express themselves or just have trouble regulating their emotions, then this is where you will find simple and fun parenting advice that you have been searching for.

Emotion recognition and Emotion Regulation are two very important skills that I really appreciate in my children as a kindergarten teacher.

You see, when children have these two skills, they can understand what they are feeling, they can express using words what they are feeling; so then, I can try and find ways to help the child regulate that feeling.

This makes both our lives ( the child and the educators) a little bit easier as now I know what type of support the child needs.

Now, not all children in my care have this skill. Which make things a little bit challenging.

Let me give you a little scenario.

I can see that Sam is angry and that is why he hit John.

But Sam doesn’t know he is angry and neither does he have the verbal skills to tell John to back off because he doesn’t like John just taking his car.

John also doesn’t recognise his feelings for his desire to play with this particular car, and just like Sam, he doesn’t know how to verbally ask to have a turn with the car. So he hits and snatches the car.

Hmmmmm………..

Can you see how Emotion Recognition, Emotion Regulation goes hand in hand with social interaction skills?

Can you see how children not having this skill can make social situations challenging for all, both at preschool and home?

Young children often act out. They have tantrums, scream, bite, hit, throw toys etc.

Why?

They are trying to express their feelings.

Just like adults, young children have feelings too.

However, unlike adults, children do not have the vocabulary to explain what they are feeling.

Therefore, they end up expressing their feeling through their behaviour.

It is easy for us to understand a child’s happy behaviour. We can see it through their laughs, giggles, hugs, and affection. Reactions that we do want to see and so it is easy for us to acknowledge and appreciate.

However, emotions such as frustrations, anxiety, stress, and anger, can incite ‘big’ or inappropriate behaviours from children.

This can cause embarrassment and awkwardness in social situations and sometimes even frustration and anxiety in parents; especially when your child’s actions harm or hurt other children.

When situations like this arise, keep your calm.

Remember young children are still learning to identify and cope with their emotions.

This is the time for a calm, gentle and positive approach; time to help nurture emotional learning in your child for long-term health and success in life.

It is our job as adults to simplify things for children so that they can begin to better understand the world around them. As a parent, you can support your child through this learning phase.

Believe it or not, emotion recognition, developing awareness of different feelings and how to react to some of these feelings has to be intentionally taught to children from an early age.

Why Should Parents Bother Teaching Children Skills for Emotion Recognition?

Children that can recognise and understand their own emotions and the emotions of others have more self-awareness and empathy.

When children have a better awareness of others and their feelings, it helps them solve underlying problems and make better choices.

When they can identify their emotion and solve a problem, then children feel more in control.

This might help reduce their anxiety and other health problems.

Check Out This Infographic! Feel free to download this pdf.

But How Do I Teach My Child to Recognize Emotions?

Engaging children in any learning experience is a fine art. 

It must be of their interest; because only then; children will engage at a deeper level, with all their thinking and senses engaged.

I am going to share, my 3 Favourite Ways for teaching Emotion Recognition and Emotion Regulation that I have used both as a teacher and a mom.

Emotions and Feelings Card Game

Children love beautifully illustrated cards. If you have any experience with children, you will know that children love stacking cards, flipping them, moving them around, looking at pictures on them and manipulating them in many ways.

So, now that we have got something that is of great interest to children, let us see how we can use it to our advantage.

1. Here is a PDF of Feelings cards and Emotion Recognition Activities for ages 4-8 that you can easily print (as many times as you want)

The best part is, that each card is beautifully illustrated with facial expressions.

This is so useful in teaching children body language during a particular emotion.

 How to Use Feelings and Emotions Game to Teach Your Child Emotion Recognition?

• If you are new to this game, start with only a few cards, so your child does not get overwhelmed or distracted by so many cards at once.

• Look at one picture (at a time) of choice together and talk about the facial expression and the body language.

• Prompt your child to make their observations by asking questions like; What do you think happened to this girl/boy? Why do you think she/ he is angry, sad…. etc.

• Use recent experiences of your child to relate to the emotions on the card and help your child reflect on how he/ she felt during that incident.

• Reflect together on what was okay behaviour and what was not during that experience.

• Reflect together on how there would have been a better outcome if…….

Once children begin to recognise and name the different emotions and feelings, we can then progress to teaching children ways to self-regulate their emotions and understand and empathise with others feelings.

Use this game as an experience, with lots of positive conversations, reflections and as a way of learning to solve problems in different situations.

Equip your child with simple tools that will help them solve their problems e.g. How to use words to defuse an escalating situation: example,

• You can have a turn when I finish

• You make me angry when you snatch my toy

• I am playing with the red car, but you can have the green one if you want

• When you throw sand at me, it hurts my eyes

When children learn to use words to express how they are feeling or begin to understand what others are feeling, it becomes easier for them to collaborate and engage in meaningful plays.

Using words also helps the other child become more aware of how their action is affecting their peer and can act as a prompt to stop and think.

Let’s look at my Next Favourite Activity!

A Little SPOT of Emotion 8 Book Box Set (Books 1-8: Anger, Anxiety, Peaceful, Happiness, Sadness, Confidence, Love, & Scribble Emotion)

I love reading books with children. I think it is an amazing way for an adult to connect with a child.

As a kindergarten teacher, with a class full of little beings who are still developing their skills for emotion recognition and emotion regulation, it can become quite challenging to manage everyone’s emotional needs at the same time.

This box set ‘A Little SPOT of Emotion 8 Book Box Set (Books 1-8: Anger, Anxiety, Peaceful, Happiness, Sadness, Confidence, Love, & Scribble Emotion)’ is such a great teaching resource for me.

Children love ‘Little Spot.’ It has really cute and engaging illustrations that all children just love.

The story or the concept in each book is easy for young children to understand.

This box set contains 8 books. Each book introduces a new or a different emotion and helps the children understand what that emotion is.

But most importantly the books share real-life, practical suggestions for regulating emotions.

I love using these calming techniques in my class. As the concept is easy for the children to understand and the steps so easy to follow, children are often able to use these techniques themselves.

Not only did this help me teach different emotions and emotion regulation skills to the children, but it also helped the children develop more awareness towards their feeling and towards others feelings.

Children are learning to show empathy and thus developing a better sense of problem-solving skills in social situations.

‘A Little Spot of Emotions’ is changing my classroom and our whole learning space for the better. We now have a calmer bunch of children who are learning to understand and better express their emotions.

Leaving the books in a space where children can have easy access, has helped my children gradually apply these self-regulating techniques independently as well.

If your child needs support in self regulating emotions and settling in at Kindy, then please do check this book out. It was specifically written for children struggling to settle at day-care. The book comes with a FREE GUIDE for parents that will help you understand how to initiate conversation with your child to understand their anxiety and how to help your child build anticipation for the next kindy day. ( so that they are actually looking forward to going to kindy instead of fighting you not to go)

My next favourite is-

Purrble

Purrble is a cuddly, ultra-soft furry toy.

Every Purrble is unique, because they are custom dyed.

I love Purrble and so does my little niece.

Why?

Because Purrble is a great little cuddly friend to help anxious children calm down.

How Does Purrble Work?

Purrble has a way of calming down kids during intense emotions such as anxiety, panic attacks, meltdowns or when ‘big emotions’ take over.

Simply, turn on the Purbble and hand it to your child.

Purrble has a tiny vibrational heartbeat which symbolizes your child’s current emotional state.

The goal here is to calm Purrble and make it purr.

As your child will pet and focus on soothing Purrble, they will also get a chance to have some quiet ‘me time’ to calm themselves down.

Purrble is no ordinary toy though.

It has sensors that respond to touch and fidgeting and so it knows when your child is calm enough for it to begin purring.

It is the absolute best way of calming your child in the moment.

Purrbles are small enough to carry in your handbag and so can be a very convenient way of supporting your child keeping their emotions in check, during shopping trips, day trips or even during long hours of quarantine.

It will help your child stay centered and control their breathing, helping them calm their anxiety and feeling of overwhelm.

You can teach your children to sing a song or tell Purrble a story during this time. This way children can focus on Purrble’s wellbeing, then on their own anger or overwhelm.

Purrble is also great for those resilient kids who try to hide their anxiety or show that they are worried. Petting Purrble can be a discreet way for them to feel better and more relaxed without feeling embarrassed or judged.

This is a great little interactive toy for teaching children to learn to manage their emotions from an early age and sets them up for success later in life.

Psst….. Purrbles are amazing for calming adult anxiety too!!

Important Things to Note:

Teaching children emotion recognition and emotional regulation can sometimes feel like a daunting task, especially if you have to deal with constant meltdowns and big emotions.

Check out this free video if you need some positive behaviour management techniques for dealing with tantrums and meltdowns.

Just remember to take a deep breath and find playful, interesting ways to engage with your child to deeper understand their frustration and needs.

One on one activities, such as the Emotion Card Game, Reading and even Purrble will allow you time to bond with your child, to understand their needs better.

As adults, we must help children not only learn to identify their emotions, but also to be able to express them to others using words.

Being able to use words to communicate their feelings, will solve many problems on its own.

I have shown you my 3 best and successful ways that parents could use to help develop their child’s communication skills for expressing feelings and emotions. I hope you find them helpful.