Feeling Charades

Feelings Charades is an engaging SEL game that helps children recognize and express emotions through non-verbal cues, building self-awareness, empathy, and communication skills. Players act out emotions using faces and bodies without words, while others guess, followed by sharing personal experiences.​

Materials Needed

• List of basic emotions written on paper slips: happy, sad, angry, surprised, scared, excited, frustrated (about 10-15 slips).​

• Small bowl, jar, or bag to hold the slips.​

• Optional: Timer for 1-minute rounds (tick tock).​

Step-by-Step Instructions

Gather children in a circle and model one emotion first, like happy (big smile stretch, clap clap) to demonstrate no talking.​

1. Prepare slips: Write or draw one emotion per slip (scribble scribble), fold them (crumple fold), and place in the container (plop plop).​

2. Divide into teams or play as a group: One player draws a slip (rustle rustle) and acts it out using face (wide eyes gasp) and body (arms flail stomp) for 1 minute—no words or sounds.​

3. Guess and cheer: Others shout guesses (yay right!); correct guesser shares "I felt that when..." (warm share), then takes next turn (hooray hooray).​

4. Rotate turns: Everyone acts at least once, shaking container between rounds (rattle shake).​

5. Reflect together: Discuss "What made it easy/hard to guess? Show your scared face (shiver ooh)." (sparkle think).​

Tips for Success

For toddlers, use 4-5 simple emotions and pair with a mirror (gleam shine) for self-checking; repeat weekly to expand emotion vocabulary.