Emotion Name Cards

These emotion name cards can be useful in a wide range of activities to support the naming and recognising of different feelings and emotions. This can help to grow an individual’s emotional vocabulary and recognise the subtle differences between some emotions.

Choose a range of emotion name cards to use with an individual or group, depending on their needs. Avoid overwhelming them by using too many cards at once. Gradually introduce new emotion cards over time.

Activity ideas:

• • Grouping similar emotions together

• • Sorting into comfortable and uncomfortable feelings

• • Sorting by physical responses to an emotion (e.g. heart beating faster, or feeling sick)

• • Identifying emotions at different times of day (e.g. at lunch time)

• • “When I…” statements (e.g. “When I feel confident, I…”)

• • Creating supportive strategies (e.g. When I feel frustrated, I can…)

• • Drawing a picture to accompany an emotion

There are also blank cards to add additional emotions.

For further support with naming and recognising emotions, download our Emotions Scale resource pack.