Emotions are a crucial part of everyone’s life. The wide range of emotional experiences not only influences our thoughts but also shapes our behaviours. To support children’s holistic development and reduce negative behaviours, early social emotional education is essential.

Social emotional education for preschool children not only helps them clearly recognise and express their feelings but also teaches them how to manage and regulate their emotions. Through this, children develop effective emotional communication skills, learning how to share, empathise, and cooperate with others. These abilities create a strong foundation for developing social skills and building positive relationships.

By teaching children about their emotions during their early years, we can help them develop positive attitudes towards life and focus on the bright side of things.

1. Emotion Colouring

• Purpose: Through the emotion colouring game, preschool children will be encouraged to express and recognise emotions. Additionally, the game helps develop language skills, stimulates imagination, and enhances observational abilities.

• Preparation: 

• • Simple drawings representing basic emotions like happiness, surprise, excitement, etc.
  • Colours corresponding to each emotion (e.g., yellow for happiness, blue for sadness).

• How to Play:

• • The teacher or parent introduces each picture and the colour that corresponds to the emotion.
  • Children are free to choose a picture they like and the colour they feel matches the emotion in the drawing.
  • After colouring, children share their feelings with their peers and adults.

2. Role-Playing Game

• Purpose: This Social emotional education game helps children develop social skills by taking on different characters. It teaches them to recognise and better understand their own and others’ emotions. The game also helps enhance communication skills, emotional regulation, and problem-solving abilities.

• Preparation: Various costumes and accessories: doctor’s coat, police hat, chef’s apron, etc.

• How to Play:

• • Children choose a costume and role-play their chosen character.
  • They interact with each other in their new roles, expressing emotions and actions appropriate to the situation.
  • After the game, hold a discussion where children can share their emotions, experiences, and lessons learned from the activity.

3. Listen and Follow

• Purpose: This game helps children develop focus, emotional recognition, and expression. By listening and following instructions related to emotions, children improve their reflexes and gain a deeper understanding of emotional cues.

• How to Play:

• • The teacher or parent gives emotional prompts, for example, “Show me how you look when you’re feeling really sad” or “Smile brightly like a happy cat.”
  • Children must listen and quickly respond by acting out the emotion accurately.
  • To make the game more engaging and challenging, the teacher or parent can give opposite or incorrect instructions to see how the children react.

4. Emotion Bottles

• Purpose:  This social emotional education game helps children recognise and better understand different emotions. By observing and interacting with the “emotion bottles,” children learn to manage their emotions and express them naturally.

• Preparation: A set of bottles, each representing a basic emotion like happiness, sadness, surprise, excitement, etc., with corresponding colours and images.

• How to Play:

• • Each child randomly selects a bottle.
  • They observe the image on the bottle and express the emotion using facial expressions, gestures, or words.
  • The children then share with their peers why they chose that particular emotion and explain the feeling they expressed.

5. Emotion Sorting

• Purpose: This game helps children learn to identify and categorise different emotions. Through this, they gain a better understanding of emotional diversity and develop emotional management skills.

• Preparation: A set of images representing various emotions, such as happiness, sadness, surprise, excitement, etc.

•  How to Play:

• • The teacher introduces the images to the children and discusses the emotions shown in each picture.
  • The children are then asked to sort the images into different emotion categories (e.g., positive emotions, negative emotions).
  • After completing the task, the children share their reasoning for the way they classified each emotion.

6. Self-Portrait Drawing

• Purpose: This activity encourages children to gain a deeper understanding of their own emotions, build confidence in expressing their feelings, and develop creativity. By drawing a self-portrait, children learn how to visually express their emotions in a lively and engaging way.

•  Preparation: Mirrors, drawing paper, coloured pencils.

• How to Play:

• • Children look in the mirror and observe the expression on their face.
  • They choose an emotion they want to portray (e.g. happiness, excitement, curiosity, surprise, …) and try to maintain that expression.
  • The children then draw their face on paper, paying attention to the features that express the chosen emotion.

7. Naming Emotions

• Purpose: This game helps children recognise different emotions. By observing images, they develop awareness of their own emotions as well as those of others.

• Preparation: A set of images depicting various emotions such as happiness, sadness, surprise, excitement, and more.

•  How to Play:

• • The teacher will show each image in turn and ask the children to guess how the character in the picture is feeling.
  • After the children give their answers, the teacher will explain each emotion in more detail, providing real-life examples to help them understand.

8. Emotional Puppet Theatre

• Purpose: This game helps children develop social skills while recognising and expressing emotions naturally. By controlling the puppets, children gain a better understanding of their own emotions and learn to interact with the emotions of others.

• Preparation: A set of puppets with a variety of shapes, colours, and facial expressions.

• How to Play:

• • Children are free to create and build a storyline for their puppet show.
  • They use the puppets to portray characters and act out situations in their story.
  • Through the characters, children express a range of emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, and more.

9. Emotion Matching

• Purpose: This game helps children develop their observation, comparison, and categorisation skills through matching images. By pairing emotional images, they gain a better understanding of emotional diversity and learn to connect different feelings.

• Preparation: A set of images showing various facial expressions, with two similar images representing each emotion.

• How to Play:

• • Children carefully observe the images and look for similarities between them.
  • They will then pair up the images that show the same emotion.
  • After matching, the children will name the emotions and share their thoughts and feelings about what they see.

10. Collaborative Storytelling

• Purpose: Through collaborative storytelling, children learn to express emotions, interact with their peers, and build relationships. This activity also helps develop creativity, communication skills, and self-confidence in expressing themselves. 

• How to Play:

• • One child starts the story with an exciting opening line.
  • Each child takes turns adding a new detail, character, or surprising event to the story.
  • The last child will provide an ending to wrap up the story.

11. Jump into Emotions

• Purpose: This social game helps children identify and express emotions in an active and engaging way. By “jumping into emotions,” they develop quick reflexes, improve interaction with their peers, and gain a better understanding of their own emotions and those of others.

• Preparation: Several picture cards displaying different facial expressions, a spacious area for the children to move around freely.

• How to Play:

• • Parents or teachers call out the name of an emotion.
  • The children quickly find and jump onto the picture card that matches the emotion called out.
  • The adult checks to see if the children have chosen the correct card.

 12. Create a Face

• Purpose: This activity allows children to explore and understand different emotions. By assembling facial features, children enhance their creativity, develop logical thinking, and build confidence in expressing their ideas.

• Preparation: A set of images showing facial features (eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows) that represent a variety of expressions.

• How to Play:

• • The adult names an emotion (e.g. happiness, excitement, curiosity, surprise,…).
  • The children choose and assemble the facial features to create an expression that matches the given emotion.
  • Once completed, the children can share their picture and explain why they selected those particular features.

 

La Petite Ecole Hồ Chí Minh City Bilingual International School proudly serves as a second home where preschoolers can thrive holistically, focusing not just on intellectual growth but also on social skills and emotional intelligence. With a modern learning environment and a child-centered educational programme, La Petite Ecole Ho Chi Minh city supports children in recognising emotions, managing their feelings, and building positive relationships with those around them.

Social emotional education is an integral part of the curriculum at La Petite Ecole Ho Chi Minh city. Through fun and creative learning activities, children develop their communication skills, gain confidence in expressing themselves, and foster independent thinking.

We hope this article has provided parents with a better understanding of emotional education through social games for preschoolers. If you have any questions, please contact La Petite Ecole Ho Chi Minh city today to learn more about our curriculum and other valuable information.