Connect with Friends and Family

Emotion Charades

Recognizing emotions is a key part of Emotional Intelligence and a skill that helps children navigate social interactions more smoothly.

In this game, the actor acts out a scenario without talking and the audience tries to guess the emotion being conveyed.

A grid-style image of different emojis representing a range of emotions.

Choose a scenario. Here are some examples to get you started:

  • Losing a game
  • Eating soggy cereal
  • Squishing a spider
  • Breaking your favourite toy
  • Watching a scary movie
  • Scoring a goal
  • Dropping your favourite food on the ground
  • Petting a cute animal
  • Saying goodbye to someone you’ll miss
  • Falling off your bike

Act out the scenario using your face and body, but no words, to show the emotion you might feel in that situation. Some of the different emotions you might feel in these situations include: scared, happy, angry, sad, curious, worried, excited, disappointed, disgusted, frustrated, etc.

Ask your audience (a family member) to try to guess the emotion you were showing.
Switch roles – the actor becomes the audience and one of the audience members becomes the actor – and play another round.

After playing a few rounds of Emotion Charades, talk about which emotions were easier to act out and which were more difficult. Why do you think this is?