Face Puzzles

Take magazine pictures, drawings or real photos of feelings. Mount on stiff cardboard and cut into several pieces. You may want to trace the pieces onto a folder for younger children. Put each puzzle set into a baggie and give one to each child. Race against each other to see who can be the fastest to get their puzzle together and say what their feeling is. They have to get the puzzle all the way together before they say. Cut puzzles into more pieces for older children. Switch puzzles and play again if you have time.

Assess

puts together puzzles

relates part to whole

Emotion Matching Cards

Create matching cards with feelings faces. Lay the cards face down on the table. On their turn have each child turn over 2 cards and see if they have found a match. When they find one, have them identify the feeling and tell what makes them feel that way. Younger children could just identify the feeling and then make their face look that way.

Assess

matches objects that are alike

Match the Emotion

Create a folder game by attaching pockets to the inside and drawing or pasting different emotions to the pockets. Cut out small pictures from magazines or just use flash card type picture cards for the children to sort into the pockets. Have them look at the picture and try to tell what might happen in the picture and how that would make them feel. For older children, challenge them to think of non traditional answers. For example, if there is a picture of a spider most children would say to put it in the scared or sad pocket. Challenge them to think of a reason you would put it in the happy pocket -- maybe if the spider were building a cool web or mom caught the spider and kept him from biting you.

Assess

makes observations

predicts outcomes based on previous experience

Don't Worry Be Happy

Create a folder game by affixing smiley face stickers in a circle. Children can place their marker anywhere on the board to start. On their turn the child rolls the dice and moves their marker that many spaces in either direction. If they land on a space that has someone else's marker on it have them give that person a hug or high five. Set a timer and continue play around the board until the timer goes off.

Assess

takes turns

Face Match Game

Create face matching cards using actual photos of the children in your class, pictures from magazines, or simple drawings. Lay the pictures face down on the table and take turns trying to make a match. *Most people play that if you get a match you get to go again, but this usually makes the game very one-sided. For young children, play so that even if they get a match play moves to the next player.

Assess

persistence

Feelings Lotto

Give each child a lotto board with faces on them. Tell a situation and have them cover up the face that would go with that situation (have them cover only one face even if more than one applies) *For younger children, or as an introduction to feelings, simple say a feeling for them to cover up, or make the face yourself and have them guess what you are feeling.

Assess

recognizes healthy behaviors

If You're Happy

Create a feeling dice by gluing pictures of feeling faces onto each side of a cube. Also draw movements onto index cards to represent actions - try sitting, clapping, etc. Try http://www.dotolearn.com/ for images. On a child's turn, he rolls the dice and chooses a movement card. He then does that movement while he is expressing the emotion (such as clapping sadly or sitting happily).

Assess

coordinates several movements at once

Toss a Feeling

Lay out a grid with different feelings on it. Have the children take turns tossing a beanbag onto the grid and naming the feeling it lands on.

Assess

uses new vocabulary

pronounces words correctly