Ways to use Feelings cards

This is a ‘ways to use feelings cards’ blog post. There are so many activities you can do just with a set of feelings cards. This set is huge with 222 different words on small cards. Print them out, laminate them and cut them all out (yes I know it will take a while but you really can do so much with them). To make them look a bit more interesting then you could print onto coloured card or paper. Put them all in a little tub and you have an amazing bit of ELSA kit.

When working with a child you may not want to use all the cards. Just choose the ones you think are relevant to the child. With younger children they may only have a very limited emotional vocabulary whereas secondary students may know a lot more vocabulary. You might want your cards a bit larger and to do that just print on A3 paper instead.

Download: Feelings cards

• Find a feeling word you don’t know the meaning of and find out!
• Pick a comfortable feeling and use it in a sentence.
• Pick an uncomfortable feeling and use it in a sentence.
• Think about your day and pick out all the feelings you have felt in that day.
• Make a collage of….
  • angry words.
  • happy words.
  • scared words.
• Start a feelings diary and pick out your main feeling for that day. Write it down and explain why you felt that way.
• Pick a card and draw….
  • the facial expression.
  • a picture of a time when you felt like that.
  • a comic strip of what happened when you felt like that
• Find all the synonyms of that word.
• Use speech bubbles and thinking bubbles to show what you were thinking or saying (you can purchase ELSA Support’s Comic strip resource to help you with this)
• Make your own feeling’s dictionary by picking out all the emotion words you have heard of, writing them down in alphabetical order and write a brief description of what it means.
• Pick a feelings word and see if you can make the face with Elsa-Support’s Make a face activity.
• Pick a feelings word and write a thinking bubble. What would you be thinking if you felt like that?
• Pick a feelings word and write a speech bubble. What would you be saying if you felt like that?
• Pick an ‘angry’ feeling word. How could you calm yourself down if you felt like that? ELSA Support’s traffic light pack has lots of ideas.
• Pick a feelings word  and think about the physical feelings you get when you have this emotion. See our BODY SENSATIONS PACK Does your heart beat faster?
• Do you….
  • breathe faster?
  • get butterflies in your tummy?
  • feel warm or cold?
• Pick a feeling and….
  • make the face, use a mirror to practise.
  • act it out with a friend.
  • make up a scenario that would make you feel like that.

Check out our facemats 

• Make up a scenario for a child and get them to choose the feeling they would feel in those circumstances.
• Pick a comfortable feeling and try and use the word as many times as you can in one day.
• Pick a feelings card and write or talk about how someone might behave when they feel like that. What might they do?
• Pick a feeling and think about who could help you if you felt like that or how could you help yourself if you felt like that?
• Pick a feelings card and see if you can find the opposite feeling. An example would be that happy is the opposite of sad.
• Pick an uncomfortable feelings card and think about how you could change that feeling to a more comfortable feeling. What could you do?
• Pick a feelings card card, what animal does this feeling make you think about?
• Pick a feelings card. If this feeling was a colour, what would it be?
• Pick a feelings card. If this feeling was a toy, what would it be?
• Pick a feelings card. If this feeling was a sport, what would it be?
• Pick a feelings card. If this feeling was a smell, what would it be?
• Pick a feelings card, hide it from your friend but make the facial expression. Can they guess what the feeling word is?
• Pick a feelings card, what noise does this feeling remind you of?
• Pick a feelings card,  If you felt like this how would other people around you feel?
• How would your….
  • parents feel?
  • sister or brother feel?
  • friends feel?
• Pick a feelings card and make some art. Just draw or paint whatever this word means to you.
• Can you feel more than one feeling at a time? If you sometimes feel more than one feeling see if you can find the feelings words to match those feelings. You could draw a heart shape and write all the  words in the heart.
• Pick a feelings card.  When you have this feeling what action do you take? What do you do?
• Pick a feelings card and create a thoughts feelings and action chart.
• Choose a feelings card. What triggers this feeling in you?
• Choose a feelings card. Who does this feeling remind you of?
• When reading your reading book, think about a character and the emotions they are showing. Find some word cards to match those emotions.
• Pick out some feelings card and give each feeling an action. What action could you use for angry? What action could you use for happy?
• Pick a handful of feelings cards and sort them between ‘comfortable feelings and uncomfortable feelings’.
• Pick a feelings card and think about what job that feeling has. What does it tell you?
• Pick a feelings card and think about where you would want to be if you felt like that. Who would you want to be with you? You could draw a picture.
• Pick a feelings card What song does the feeling word remind you of?
• Find 5 different feelings that you have felt this week?
• What is your favourite feeling? Find it!
• Which feeling do you dislike most? Find it!
• Learn to spell some of the feelings words. You might be able to use them in your writing.
• Make a ‘feelings picture’ by either drawing a picture of you in the middle of the page or use a photo and choose all the feelings you have ever felt. Write them in bubble writing around your picture.
• Listen to some music and pick out all the feelings that the music makes you think about.
• Just like the movie ‘Inside out’ can you create a character for one of the feelings words?
• Pick a handful of feelings words and sort them alphabetically.