08/19/2026
🌈 EMOTION MATCHING + BUILDING OUR FEELINGS! 😊😢😡😨
We’ve been exploring emotions this week, and today we took our learning a step further with two hands-on activities that helped our little learners recognize, identify, and express different feelings!
First, we played an Emotion Match game! The children looked at different facial expressions and matched them to the emotion they represented—happy, sad, angry, worried, scared, and hurt. This may look like a simple matching activity, but it is actually building some very important social-emotional skills! 🧠✨
We’re teaching children to:
👀 Notice facial expressions and body language
💭 Begin identifying how they and others may be feeling
🗣️ Build the vocabulary needed to communicate emotions
❤️ Develop empathy and understanding for others
🤝 Recognize that everyone experiences big feelings
Next, we got to get creative with our face boards! The children built their own faces by choosing different eyes, noses, and mouths to create different expressions. We talked about how changing just one part of a face can completely change the emotion we see.
This is such an important concept for young children because emotions aren’t always easy to put into words. Sometimes a child may not be able to say, “I’m feeling worried” or “That hurt my feelings,” but they may be able to recognize that feeling on a face or point to a picture that represents how they feel. ❤️
And this all connects beautifully to what we’ve been learning about kindness and teamwork!
Last week, we learned what it means to be a bucket filler—sharing, helping, taking turns, using kind words, and looking for ways to make our friends feel good.
Now we’re learning the next important piece:
Before we can respond to someone’s feelings, we have to learn how to recognize them. 💕
😢 If we notice that a friend looks sad, we can check on them.
😟 If a friend looks worried, we can offer comfort.
😡 If someone is angry, we can give them space and use our calming tools.
🤕 If someone is hurt, we can show kindness and help.
☺️ If someone is happy, we can recognize their feeling.

We are beginning to understand that our actions affect how other people feel—and that is such an important foundation for kindness, empathy, friendship, and teamwork. 🌈
We’re not just learning the names of emotions…we’re learning how to understand ourselves, understand each other, and care for the people around us. 🥰💛
One little feeling at a time, we’re building BIG social-emotional skills! 🌟
