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Snap: A game for two to four players. The players are given an equal number of cards. Each child places their cards face down and takes turns to place a card, face up, on a separate pile. When there is a match, the child who says ‘Snap!’ and places their hand on the pile first, receives the pile. The person who ends up with most cards is the winner. An extension to help ensure that the children understand the emotions represented would be that when they call ‘Snap!’, ask them, ‘When have you ever felt that way?’, ‘How can you help someone who is feeling that way’ or ‘What would be a good way to “change the channel” with yourself when you feel that way?’
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How are you feeling today? A child chooses a card from the pack which shows how they are feeling at that moment. The child can either say why they are feeling that way or put the card back into the pack for the next child’s turn. The other children can suggest ways to deal with that feeling.
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Emotion charades: The children choose an emotion card at random and have to act out or mime the emotion without saying it. The other children try to guess the emotion.
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Go fish: A game for three to six players. Each player is given seven cards. The remaining cards are put in a pile in the middle. The aim of the game is to collect as many sets of four as possible before the first person loses all their cards. The first person asks another player if they have a card (e.g. ‘Do you have Proud?’). If the other player has the card being asked for, he or she must give up all of them to the person who has asked. If the other player doesn’t have any of the cards asked for, he or she tells the player to ‘Go fish’, whereupon the player takes a card from the pile. If the card matches the one the player originally asked for (i.e. Proud), they must show everyone else and then take another turn. If not, it’s the next person’s turn. When a player has a set of four, he or she must lay them out on the table for all to see. If a player has to ‘Go fish’ and picks up a card which enables them to get a set of something they didn’t ask for, but they are collecting in their hand, they do not get another turn. Instead they just put their set of four on the table. The game is finished when the first person loses all their cards. The winner is the player with the most sets of four.
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How did they feel? Choose some characters and situations at random from The Wolf’s Colourful Coat. Ask the children to select an emotion card that describes how they think that character was feeling and explain why they were feeling that way.
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Tell me, tell me: Pick a mood card at random. Invite the children to explain a time when they felt that way or when they have seen someone else feel that way. If the card drawn is a feeling that doesn’t make us feel good, collectively brainstorm on how to best manage that feeling.
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Good feeling/bad feeling 1: The children are given a card or can choose a card from the pack. They turn it over and say what they think the emotion is and then say whether they think it’s a good or a bad feeling.
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Good feeling/bad feeling 2: One to four children can be given the whole Feel Brave card pack and asked to make two piles – a good feelings pile and a bad feelings pile. The children work together to decide in which pile the emotion should go. An extension to this game would be to look at the emotions in the bad feeling pile and question when it might be good to feel like that (e.g. feeling left out from friends who might be playing games or doing things that just don’t feel right to you, sometimes being worried can help you to stay safe).
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Manage this feeling: A card is chosen and the children have to suggest a good way to manage that feeling (e.g. ‘If I feel worried, I can tell someone that I trust about my worries’ or ‘If I feel angry, I can rip up one of the books I’m allowed to rip up’).
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Choose a feeling: Pick a child and then describe a situation of change, loss or grief. The child can then choose three feelings they think they might feel in that situation. For example:
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When someone’s pet has died.
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When someone has moved house and they are going to a new school.
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When someone didn’t get picked to play on the football team.
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When someone’s granddad died.
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When someone has moved countries.
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When someone didn’t get the present they really wanted for Christmas.
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I can guess how you feel: One child picks a card from the pack that no one else sees. The child then acts out the feeling (the teacher can ensure that only the cards relevant to obvious feelings around change, loss or grief are available, e.g. Sad, Angry, Unfair, Surprised, Worried, Left Out, Lonely). The other children have to try to guess what feeling the child is acting out. An extension of the game would be, once the emotion has been correctly identified, the children are invited to guess a situation where someone might feel that emotion (e.g. moving school). Another version of this game is for the teacher to hold up the card without looking. The children have to make the emotion with their faces and the teacher has to try to guess the emotion.
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How can I help you? The teacher chooses a card from the pack that describes an emotion that someone might feel when they are going through change, loss or grief. The children try to guess what might have happened to make someone feel that way (e.g. the teacher chooses ‘Lonely’ and the children might guess that a child has moved house and now has to go to a new school and that is making them feel lonely for their old friends). Encourage the children to come up with ways they could help someone who felt that way and/or what they could do for themselves if they felt that way.
