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Emotions Activity for Preschool and Beyond – Easy DIY Feelings Cup

Emotions activity for preschool diy cup game

This emotions activity for preschool and other young kids is a fun way to break down emotions and start important conversations about feelings with kids! Keep on reading to see how simple it is to make and to get our free printables!

How to Bring Up Feelings with this Emotions Activity for Preschool

What I love about this simple craft activity is that it displays emotions in an easy-to-understand way for young kids. The twistable cup is a hands on and interactive way to move through the many emotions and discuss the feelings one a time.

Stop on each one and have your kiddo try and name the emotion. Then, discuss the what, why, and how someone might feel that emotion. You could even take turns acting out what the emotion looks like, or you can play a fun game where they do an emotion and you try and guess how they are feeling. This is a great opportunity for language development and setting the stage for social-emotional awareness.

Skills: Language Development
Ages: 2 Years +
Prep Time: 10 Minutes

How to Make This Emotions Activity for Preschool

Setting up this emotions activity for preschool and beyond couldn’t be easier! All you need is two cups and our free printable! After taking just a few minutes to set it up, you’ll have an interactive tool to spark conversations about all things emotions and feelings!

All activities should be supervised by an adult. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This post may contain affiliate links.

How to Make This Emotions Activity

Setting up this emotions activity for preschool and beyond couldn’t be easier! All you need is two cups and our free printable! After taking just a few minutes to set it up, you’ll have an interactive tool to spark conversations about all things emotions and feelings!

All activities should be supervised by an adult. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This post may contain affiliate links.

Emotions activity for preschool diy cup game

Free Printable for This Emotions Activity for Preschool and Other Young Kids

We made this DIY activity extra easy for grown ups with this free printable. Instead of having to draw your own people and emotions, all you have to do is print, cut, and paste! Easy peasy!

Grab either the Little Ellen printable, the Elmo printable, or both – they are free and so fun to use!

Read on below for the step-by-step instructions and you’ll see just how easy it is to make this emotions activity for preschool and beyond.

For more printable activities, be sure to check out our full collection, including countless bundles that cover many different early childhood education skills!

Materials

Step-by-Step Instructions 

Step 1

Grab our free printable and cut out the images.

Step 2

Tape the image of the body to a cup and cut out the blank space where the face is all the way through the cup – there should be a hole now.

Step 3

Then, paste or tape the facial expression cut outs to another paper cup, make sure to not overlap.

Step 4

Place the facial expression cup inside the body cup and rotate to see the different emotions. Discuss the names for each emotion and what they mean.

Step 1

Grab our free printable and cut out the images.

Step 2

Tape the image of a body to a cup and cut out the blank space where the face is all the way through the cup – there should be a hole now.

Step 3

Then, paste or tape the facial expression cut outs to another paper cup, make sure to not overlap.

Step 4

Place the facial expression cup inside the body cup and rotate to see the different emotions. Discuss the names for each emotion and what they mean.

Benefits of Learning about Emotions

Emotions and kids go hand in hand! The earlier we discuss emotions, the easier it will be for kids to express themselves, explain how they are feeling, and have an understanding of social-emotional awareness for others.

This may help them understand that some days we are happy and some days we may feel sad, and that is okay! Plus, it is a great opportunity to discuss how we should feel comfortable sharing our emotions and not hiding them or stifling those feelings inside.

At a young age, it’s hard to understand emotions and how they play into everyday life, but this game shines a light on them to open up the conversation!

Emotions activity for preschool diy cup game

The best part about this fun cup activity is that you can let the kids take over and spin to find out which emotion to talk about. This is a great way to break down the various emotions and talk about each one in more depth and detail. 

Emotions activity for preschool diy cup game

Benefits of Learning about Emotions

Emotions and kids go hand in hand! The earlier we discuss emotions, the easier it will be for kids to express themselves, explain how they are feeling, and have an understanding of social-emotional awareness for others.

This may help them understand that some days we are happy and some days we may feel sad, and that is okay! Plus, it is a great opportunity to discuss how we should feel comfortable sharing our emotions and not hiding them or stifling those feelings inside.

At a young age, it’s hard to understand emotions and how they play into everyday life, but this game shines a light on them to open up the conversation!

The best part about this fun cup activity is that you can let the kids take over and spin to find out which emotion to talk about. This is a great way to break down the various emotions and talk about each one in more depth and detail. 

More Emotions Activities for Preschool and Beyond

Here are our top picks on games you can play to continue to learn all about emotions!

Emotions Wheel

A wonderful tool to learn about emotions and regulating feelings. This is a great way to reinforce emotional vocabulary to describe how a child is feeling.

Build a Face 

This wooden puzzle is all about building a face and displaying emotions! The parts are magnetic and great for hand-eye coordination in addition to social-emotional development.

An Emotional Pineapple

This toy is like Mr. Potato head, but with extreme emotions! There are 26 different features to explore. It is also 2-sided so you can discuss multiple emotions at once.

Book About Emotions

This is a fantastic book about emotions. The main characters are crayons and each of them have their own feelings and emotions that they express inside the book.

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