Find the Feelings – Emotional Literacy and Emotional Awareness Discussion Resource

Find the Feelings - Emotional Literacy and Emotional Awareness Discussion Resource

Help children develop emotional literacy, empathy, and emotional awareness by exploring a busy park scene filled with children experiencing a range of different emotions.

Find the Feelings is an engaging emotional wellbeing resource designed to encourage observation, discussion, perspective-taking, and emotional understanding through a fun and interactive "spot the feelings" challenge.

Helping Children Recognise and Understand Emotions

Many children can recognise basic emotions such as happiness or sadness but find it more difficult to identify less obvious feelings, understand why people might feel different emotions, or recognise that people can experience more than one emotion at the same time.

Find the Feelings has been designed to help children build these important emotional literacy skills.

Using a colourful park scene filled with children displaying a wide range of emotions, children are encouraged to become emotion detectives, carefully observing facial expressions, body language, and situations to identify how each character might be feeling.

As they explore the picture, children begin to understand that emotions are not always straightforward. Different people can react differently to the same situation, emotions can change over time, and sometimes we experience more than one feeling at once.

The resource naturally encourages discussion, empathy, and emotional curiosity whilst helping children build confidence in recognising and talking about emotions.

What Is Find the Feelings?

Find the Feelings is a printable emotional literacy and discussion resource designed for educators, counsellors, therapists, pastoral teams, youth workers, parents, and carers.

Children study a detailed park scene featuring a variety of characters displaying different emotions and experiences. They then work through a checklist of feelings, identifying which emotions they can find within the picture.

Alongside the visual challenge, a series of discussion questions encourage deeper thinking about emotions, helping children explore why people might feel certain ways, whether multiple emotions can be experienced at once, and how emotions affect behaviour.

The activity can be used individually, in pairs, small groups, or as a whole-class discussion starter.

Find the Feelings helps children:

• Recognise a range of emotions in themselves and others.

• Develop emotional vocabulary.

• Understand how body language and facial expressions communicate feelings.

• Explore different perspectives and experiences.

• Build empathy and social awareness.

• Practise discussion and reasoning skills.

• Reflect on their own emotional experiences.

Rather than focusing on "right" or "wrong" answers, the activity encourages thoughtful discussion and emotional exploration.

What's Included?

• Full-colour Find the Feelings activity sheet
• Busy park scene featuring a range of emotions
• Emotion checklist activity
• Discussion and reflection questions
• Printable PDF format

Everything has been designed to be easy to use whilst creating meaningful opportunities for emotional learning and conversation.

Emotions Included

Children will search for and discuss a range of emotions including:

• Happy
• Sad
• Worried
• Brave
• Loved
• Scared
• Frustrated
• Calm
• Disgusted
• Angry

The open-ended nature of the activity also encourages children to identify additional emotions that may not be listed.

Key Benefits

Builds Emotional Literacy: Children learn to recognise and name a variety of emotions whilst developing a richer emotional vocabulary.

Encourages Empathy: Children consider how other people might be feeling and why they may be experiencing those emotions.

Promotes Discussion: The activity provides a natural starting point for conversations about emotions, behaviour, relationships, and wellbeing.

Develops Critical Thinking: Children use visual clues, reasoning skills, and perspective-taking to justify their ideas and interpretations.

Supports Emotional Awareness: The discussion questions encourage children to reflect on their own emotional experiences and recognise similarities between themselves and others.

Flexible and Easy to Use: Suitable for individual work, small groups, classroom discussions, nurture provision, therapeutic sessions, and family activities.

How To Use

Children begin by carefully exploring the park scene and identifying as many emotions as they can find.

Using the checklist provided, they tick off each feeling as they spot evidence within the picture.

Once the emotions have been identified, children can move on to the discussion questions which encourage deeper exploration of the characters, their emotions, and the situations they may be experiencing.

The activity can be extended by inviting children to create stories about the characters, identify additional emotions, or discuss times when they have experienced similar feelings themselves.

Perfect For

Find the Feelings is ideal for:

• Schools and classrooms

• PSHE lessons

• Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

• Nurture groups

• Counselling and therapeutic work

• Emotional literacy interventions

• School pastoral support

• Youth work settings

• Family wellbeing activities

• One-to-one support sessions

• Small group discussions

• Transition and wellbeing work

The flexible format makes it suitable for a wide range of ages and abilities.

Why Professionals Love It

Professionals often tell us that some of the best emotional learning happens through discussion.

Find the Feelings provides the perfect opportunity for children to explore emotions with trusted adults. By combining visual learning, emotional literacy, empathy-building, and discussion-based activities, this resource helps children develop a deeper understanding of emotions whilst creating valuable opportunities for meaningful conversations.

Find the Feelings is an engaging emotional literacy resource that helps children recognise emotions, build empathy, develop emotional vocabulary, and explore emotional experiences through observation, discussion, and reflection.

Whether used in the classroom, during therapeutic work, or at home, it provides a simple yet powerful way to encourage emotional understanding and start important conversations about feelings and wellbeing. Download now!