Feelings are the emotions we notice inside our bodies and show on our faces. Young children learn better when they can name feelings like happy, sad, angry, scared, and excited. Knowing these words helps children understand themselves and care about others.
A feelings wheel gives children a simple way to point to a face and say how they feel.
Key Facts
- Common feelings include happy, sad, angry, scared, and excited.
- Faces can give clues about feelings, such as smiles, tears, frowns, wide eyes, or open mouths.
- It is okay to have every feeling, even big feelings like anger or fear.
- Talking about emotions helps children ask for help and solve problems.
- A calm-down choice can be breathing, counting, hugging a toy, drawing, or asking an adult.
- Feelings can change during the day, so a child may feel more than one emotion.
Vocabulary
- Feeling
- A feeling is something you notice inside yourself, such as being happy, sad, angry, scared, or excited.
- Emotion
- An emotion is a strong feeling that can affect your face, body, words, and actions.
- Happy
- Happy means feeling good, pleased, or joyful.
- Sad
- Sad means feeling unhappy, hurt, lonely, or like you might cry.
- Angry
- Angry means feeling upset or mad because something feels wrong, unfair, or frustrating.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Saying a child is bad for feeling angry is wrong because anger is a normal feeling, but children need help choosing safe actions.
- Guessing a feeling from only one face clue is wrong because people can show feelings in different ways and may need to use words too.
- Telling children to stop crying without listening is wrong because sadness often needs comfort, time, and a caring adult.
- Thinking excited and happy are always the same is wrong because excitement can feel bigger in the body and may make it harder to stay calm.
Practice Questions
- 1 A feelings wheel shows 5 faces: happy, sad, angry, scared, and excited. If 2 children point to happy, 1 points to sad, and 3 point to excited, how many children used the wheel?
- 2 In a story, Mia smiles 4 times, cries 1 time, and makes an angry face 2 times. How many feeling clues are shown in all?
- 3 Sam is quiet, has wide eyes, and holds a teacher's hand before trying something new. Which feeling might Sam have, and what is one kind thing a friend could say or do?