Act it Out
Play a game of “emotional” charades with your children. This is very similar to a regular game of charades, but for this version, players have to “act out” an emotion without speaking, while the other members of the teams try to guess what the emotion is.
This can be a fun activity for a group of kids or family members, and will help everyone learn how to express their feelings and be more sensitive to others’ emotions.
The game can be played all together as one group, or as a friendly competition between two teams. Each player takes a turn performing an emotion. If playing in teams, you can use a timer to see if you can guess the word in under 1 minute or under 30 seconds. You can keep score by tallying which team is able to guess correctly in each round.
Game play
To start, write different emotions on slips of paper, or draw emotional faces if children don’t yet know how to read, and put the slips of paper into a hat.
Each player will pull an emotion from a hat and then act out the emotion until someone guesses the right answer.
This activity helps children to see and name feelings in others, and also helps them practise how the emotion might feel for themselves. This activity can also help parents better understand how an emotion might be expressed by their children. Overall, it may help everyone to communicate when the challenging emotions come up in the future.
Emotion List
ᖁᕕᐊᓱᒃᑐᖅ – happy
ᓴᐃᓕᔪᖅ – calm
ᐱᓕᕆᓪᓚᕆᒃᑐᖅ – focused
ᐃᓄᖅᑭᒃᑐᖅ – cheerful
ᐊᑲᐅᒃᓴᖏᑦᑐᖅ – frustrated
ᓂᓐᖓᐅᒪᔪᖅ – angry
ᐱᖏᒐᒃᑐᖅ – worried
ᓄᒫᓱᒃᑐᖅ – sad
ᑲᑉᐱᐊᓱᒃᑐᖅ – scared
ᓯᒡᒐᓱᒃ – jealous
ᐱᒃᑯᓕᔪᖅ – proud
ᖁᔭᓕᔪᖅ – grateful
ᐸᖁᓪᓗᒃ – curious
ᑲᓐᖑᓱᒃᑐᖅ – shy
ᓇᓗᓕᐅᖅᑲᔪᖅ – confused
ᑲᓐᖑᑦᑎᑦᑐᖅ – embarrassed
ᑭᐱᓐᖑᔪᖅ – bored
ᐃᓄᑑᓐᖑᖅᑐᖅ – lonely
ᐱᔪᓇᕆᔪᓐᓃᖅᑐᖅ – discouraged
ᐸᒡᕕᔪᖅ – disappointed
ᐃᓗᐊᖅᓴᖏᑦᑐᖅ – annoyed
ᑲᒪᔪᖅ – uncomfortable
ᐃᓱᒻᒪᕆᒃᑐᖅ – surprised
ᑕᑯᓐᓇᖖᒍᐊᒃᑲᖅ – imaginative