Feelings—what they are and how to manage them—are arguably one of the most important things for young kids to learn. Students need to learn feelings like everything else we teach them, with examples and practice. Having a feelings chart helps students identify and name their emotions as they experience them, or as they’re learning how to manage the feelings that they have throughout the day.
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What kinds of feelings charts are there?
A feelings chart for kids has illustrations of faces or emojis for each feeling and a word underneath. The faces help students identify how they’re feeling. We’ve designed a basic chart, plus three other versions to help students work with feelings.
Below are the different feelings charts and how to use each.
Style 1: All the Feelings
This chart has all the main feelings. Use it to identify feeling words using the faces. It’s a great one to incorporate into morning meeting. Students can point to the face that shows what they are feeling to share or talk about why.
Style 2: Today I Am Feeling …
This tool allows students to select how they’re feeling each day. Print, cut, and laminate the feelings, write your students’ names on the main chart, and add Velcro stickers. Students can choose their feeling when they come in each morning and add it to their chart. You can also have students update their feelings throughout the day if you’re working with students on identifying feelings and emotional regulation.
Style 3: Focused Feelings
Use this chart to give students a smaller, simpler number of choices for how they feel. Print, cut, and laminate a card for each student in your class so they can choose how they feel. This option is helpful for students who need to monitor their feelings, especially if they need to be more aware of when they are becoming frustrated or angry. It’s also helpful for students who are working on understanding and identifying a specific range of feelings.
Style 4: Feelings Vocabulary
This tool is for older kids who can identify a main feeling and then want to find the perfect word to describe their feeling or a character’s feeling. Here are two ways to use this chart during instruction:
- Identify character feelings: Use this tool to identify how characters feel when you’re reading. Read a portion of the story and use the feelings chart to infer how the character is feeling.
- Writing: As students write, have them refer to the feelings chart to get specific with their words. Are they sad, worried, or frustrated? Is their character feeling silly or excited?
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