Playful Paths to Emotional Understanding: How We Can Support a Child’s Emotions Through 10 Engaging Games

Supporting children’s understanding and management of emotions through play is a great approach that helps them recognise their feelings and learn how to handle them. Here are 10 game ideas tailored to preschool and primary school students that allow them to recognise feelings in a fun and healthy way.

5 games to support a Preschooler’s emotions

1. Emotion Charades

How to Play: Create simple emotion cards with faces showing different emotions (e.g., happy, sad, angry, surprised). Take turns picking a card and acting out the emotion without speaking. The other players guess the emotion.


Purpose: Helps children recognise and label different emotions, improving their emotional vocabulary.

2. Feelings Matching Game

How to Play: Make pairs of cards with pictures of children showing various emotions. The child flips over two cards at a time, trying to find matching pairs. Discuss the emotions on the cards as you play.

Purpose: Enhances emotional recognition and memory skills.

3. Emotion Ball Toss

How to Play: Write different emotions on a ball (e.g., happy, sad, excited, scared). Toss the ball to your child, and whichever emotion their thumb lands on, they share a time they felt that emotion.

Purpose: Encourages children to express and discuss their feelings.

4. Calm Jars

How to Play: Create a "calm jar" using glitter, water, and glue. When shaken, the glitter swirls around. Ask your child to watch the glitter until it settles, using the time to calm down and reflect on their emotions.

Purpose: Teaches self-soothing and calming techniques.

5. Story Time with Feelings:

How to Play: During story time, pause and ask your child how they think a character is feeling at different points in the story. Ask them what might make the character feel better.

Purpose: Builds empathy and helps children understand emotions in different contexts.

5 games to help Primary School children handle their emotions

1. Emotion Role-Playing

How to Play: Set up scenarios (e.g., "You lost your favourite toy" or "Your friend shared their lunch with you"). Have your child act out how they might feel and respond in each situation.

Purpose: This develops problem-solving skills and emotional regulation through role-play.

2. Feelings Board Game

How to Play: Create a simple board game with different spaces that prompt players to share an emotion and how they handle it (e.g., "Share a time you were scared. What did you do?"). Use a dice to move around the board.

Purpose: Encourages sharing and discussing emotions in a structured setting.

3. Emotion Sculpting

How to Play: Provide playdough or clay and ask your child to sculpt how they feel or how a particular emotion might look. Discuss their creation afterward.

Purpose: Helps children express their emotions creatively and understand the physical manifestation of feelings.

4. Feelings Diary

How to Play: Encourage your child to keep a simple feelings diary where they draw or write about their emotions each day. Discuss the entries together regularly.

Purpose: Promotes self-reflection and helps children track their emotional growth over time.

5. Emotion Bingo

How to Play: Create bingo cards with different emotions in each square. As you read out scenarios (e.g., "You win a prize," "You drop your ice cream"), your child marks the emotion they would feel. The first to get a bingo wins.

Purpose: Reinforces the connection between situations and emotions and builds emotional literacy.

Why it matters?

These simple, engaging games align with Discovery Playtime’s mission to nurture confident, creative, and emotionally resilient children through meaningful play. By weaving emotional learning into everyday fun, we help children better understand themselves and the world around them.