Feelings Bingo

Knowing what feelings look like and what to call them helps us understand and describe how we’re feeling. It also helps us notice how others might be feeling. Today, we’re going to do an activity that helps us learn different feelings words and what those feelings look like.

1. Ask students to brainstorm all the feelings words they can think of. As students name different feelings words, write and/or draw the words on a white board or a piece of chart paper where students can see them.
2. Review the different Emotions Cards by having students act out the emotion on each card.
3. Next, hand out the Feelings Bingo Cards (one bingo card per student). Ask students to listen carefully to the emotion you call out, find the emotion on their card, and put a bingo chip or piece of paper on it. All students may cross out the blank space on their card. If students get three in a row, they will say “Bingo!”
4. Start the game by calling out the name of any emotion on the Bingo card. To scaffold learning, you can also hold up the Emotions Card for the class to see.
5. Play several rounds. You can invite student volunteers to take turns leading the game. Alternatively, go around the class and have each student call out an emotion from the card, and see who gets “Bingo” first.

• Why do you think it’s important to know words for different feelings?
• What other words would you like to add to our Feelings Bingo card?
• How else would you place this game?

For primary school students:

• Play Feelings Bingo while reading a story or book. Every time a certain emotion is described in the book, students can mark it on their Bingo card.
• Play Feelings Bingo during breaks in instruction. Print out copies of the Feelings Bingo board and encourage students to play in small groups.

For students in 5-6 grade:

• Use more complex or nuanced feelings words on the Feelings Bingo card.