Most feelings activities for preschoolers come as crafts and printables: paper-plate faces, feelings wheels, color-the-emotion sheets. They're fine, and the conversation that happens while you do them helps your child more than the paper does.
The best feelings activities for preschoolers get your child naming feelings, spotting them in faces and stories, and talking about what caused them. A picture book, a mirror or a game of feelings charades all work, especially when you ask questions so your child does the talking.
Below are ten emotions activities for preschoolers you can do this week, and what the research says about the questions that make them work.
Why understanding feelings matters as your child grows up
Knowing what feelings are, and recognising them in yourself and other people, is a skill researchers measure as emotion knowledge. It shows up later in life. In a University of Delaware study published in 2001, children's emotion knowledge at age 5 predicted their social skills and how well they did at school at age 9, even after accounting for language ability and temperament. A 2010 meta-analysis that pooled studies across childhood and adolescence found the same pattern: children who understand emotions better tend to get on better with others and have fewer behavior problems.
Both are correlational. They show that emotion knowledge goes along with doing well, which is reason enough to practise it, without proving that one causes the other.
People skills also stay near the top of what employers want. In the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025, resilience, flexibility and agility (67%) and leadership and social influence (61%) were among the core skills employers ranked highest. Reading how someone feels, and handling your own feelings, sits underneath both.
How preschoolers learn about feelings
Through talk, mostly, and through their own talk more than yours.
A 2023 study in Child Development followed parents reading picture books with their preschoolers over time. Children who talked more about emotions during reading at around three and a half had more emotion knowledge a year later, in kindergarten. What parents said about emotions themselves didn't predict it. What did matter was questions: parents who asked more questions had children who talked more about feelings.
Short, regular conversations work in structured settings too. In a 2011 study at the University of Milano-Bicocca, 100 preschoolers were randomly assigned either to talk about emotions after hearing stories or to a comparison group. The conversation group understood emotions and emotion words better afterwards. A 2015 follow-up from the same team had preschoolers talk about what feelings are, what causes them and what you can do about them, and found gains in emotion understanding that held over time.
Classroom curricula built on short feelings lessons have been tested as well. In a 2007 Penn State trial, 20 Head Start classrooms were randomly assigned to the Preschool PATHS curriculum or to their usual program. After nine months of weekly lessons, children in PATHS classrooms knew more about emotions and were rated by parents and teachers as more socially competent.
Feelings activities for preschoolers to try this week
Each takes five to ten minutes. Pick one or two and come back to them.
- Picture book pause. Stop on a page where a character has a clear feeling. "How do you think she feels? How can you tell?" Let your child answer before you say anything.
- Mirror faces. Sit in front of a mirror and make a happy face, a sad face, a surprised face. Ask your child to copy, then to make one for you to guess.
- Feelings charades. Take turns acting out a feeling with your face and body, no words. One of the easiest feelings games for preschoolers, and it works with siblings.
- What happened? When you see a feeling in a story, ask what caused it. "Why is the bear sad?" Causes are the second half of understanding a feeling.
- Body clues. "When you're angry, where do you feel it? In your tummy? Your hands?" The Feelings Detective activity turns this into a game.
- Feelings at dinner. Each person says one feeling they had today and what caused it. Go first so your child hears how it's done.
- Draw it. Ask your child to draw how they feel right now. Then ask about the drawing instead of guessing.
- Puppet trouble. Two socks or two toys have a problem: one took the other's ball. How does each one feel? What could they do?
- Spot it in others. At the park or the shop, quietly wonder together how someone might be feeling. "That boy looks excited. Why might that be?" The Kindness Coins activity builds on noticing others.
- What could help? After a feeling is named, ask what might help. "She's sad her tower fell. What could she do?" This is the regulation part: what you do with a feeling. (Tower Tumbles gives you a real fallen tower to practise on.)
Which questions help most?
Open questions that hand the talking to your child. The 2023 reading study found that parents' questions were what got children talking about feelings, and that children's own talk was what predicted their later understanding.
- "How do you think he feels?"
- "How can you tell?"
- "What made her feel that way?"
- "What could he do now?"
- "Have you ever felt like that?"
Your child's answers will be short and sometimes wrong at three. That's fine. Ask, wait, and say back what they said in a full sentence: "You think she's sad because her balloon flew away."
What parents can do today
These are activities for preschoolers about feelings that fit into what you're already doing:
- Ask before you explain. When a feeling comes up in a book or in real life, ask how the person feels before you tell your child.
- Name your own feelings out loud. "I'm frustrated, the bus is late." It gives your child the words in a real moment.
- Talk about causes. A feeling has a reason. "Why do you think she's upset?" is a bigger step than naming the feeling.
- Add a "what could help?" Once the feeling is named, ask what someone could do. That's where naming turns into handling.
- Keep it short and regular. Five minutes with a picture book a few times a week fits the way the studies ran these conversations: short and often.
The Feelings Detective and Face Watching activities in our ages 3 to 4 guide take the same two steps further: finding a feeling in the body, then reading it on someone's face.
Raising Future Thinkers | Ages 3–4 has thirty five-minute, screen-free activities across six thinking skills, each built on a named study and written so you can run it after one read.
FAQ
How do I teach my preschooler about feelings?
Use everyday moments and picture books to ask how someone feels, how your child can tell, and what caused the feeling. A 2023 study found that parents' questions got children talking about feelings, and children's own talk predicted their understanding a year later.
Which feelings should a preschooler learn first?
Start with the big, clear ones: happy, sad, angry and scared. Once your child names those easily, add feelings like surprised, frustrated, worried and proud, using them in real moments rather than as a list.
Why does understanding emotions matter for young children?
Emotion knowledge at age 5 predicted social skills and school success at age 9 in a 2001 University of Delaware study. A 2010 meta-analysis found that children who understand emotions better tend to get along better with others.
What should I do when my preschooler has a big feeling?
Name it calmly ("You're really angry"), wait until the feeling has eased, then talk about what caused it and what might help next time. Talking through feelings is easier when your child isn't in the middle of one.
Do picture books help children learn about feelings?
Yes, especially when you stop and talk about the characters' feelings. Randomised studies in Italian preschools found that conversations about emotions after stories improved children's understanding of emotions.
Sources
- Reschke, P. J., Clifford, B. N., Brown, M. M., Siufanua, M., Graver, H., Cooper, A., Porter, C. L., Stockdale, L. A. & Coyne, S. M. (2023). Links between parent–child conversations about emotions and changes in children's emotion knowledge across early childhood. Child Development. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13960
- World Economic Forum (2025). The Future of Jobs Report 2025, ch. 3, Skills outlook. https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/in-full/3-skills-outlook/
- Ornaghi, V., Grazzani, I., Cherubin, E., Conte, E. & Piralli, F. (2015). 'Let's talk about emotions!' The effect of conversational training on preschoolers' emotion comprehension and prosocial orientation. Social Development, 24(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12091
- Grazzani, I. & Ornaghi, V. (2011). Emotional state talk and emotion understanding: a training study with preschool children. Journal of Child Language, 38(5). https://boa.unimib.it/handle/10281/17769
- Trentacosta, C. J. & Fine, S. E. (2010). Emotion knowledge, social competence, and behavior problems in childhood and adolescence: a meta-analytic review. Social Development, 19(1), 1–29. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2975582
- Domitrovich, C. E., Cortes, R. C. & Greenberg, M. T. (2007). Improving young children's social and emotional competence: a randomized trial of the preschool PATHS curriculum. Journal of Primary Prevention, 28(2), 67–91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-007-0081-0
- Izard, C., Fine, S., Schultz, D., Mostow, A., Ackerman, B. & Youngstrom, E. (2001). Emotion knowledge as a predictor of social behavior and academic competence in children at risk. Psychological Science, 12(1), 18–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00304
