Feelings Worksheets
Related ELA Standard: ELA
Feelings are emotional reactions to an event, situation, or action. Feelings can't be seen and are often unknown even to the people that are carrying the emotion themselves. Emotions affect our perception of our reality. They affect our actions and daily behavior. Anything that we can use one of our five senses to interpret can change our feelings. Students often have a great deal of difficulty exploring their emotions. In many cases you do not know how they will arise until you are put in a situation that brings them to the surface. As teachers we should proactively approach this topic with our students and model healthy reactions to emotions. This will help the healthy formation of mental health for our students. These worksheets focus on the helping children learn basic feelings based on visual and literal cues.
Feelings Worksheets To Print:
Fear Worksheet - When were the last times you were fearful? Do you remember?
What Do You See? - Match each picture to the correct feeling. Write the feeling on
the line below the picture.
Mr. Feeling - Fill in the blanks to complete each feeling.
How Often Do You Feel? - Choose three colors for your key. For each feeling below, color
In the shape, according to your key.
My Feelings - When are you angry, crying, cheerful, and super excited?
Feeling Cube - Cut out the cube pattern. Fold and tape the squares to form the cube.
Anger Matrix - When you are angry, what kind of expression is on your face?
Feelings Search - Find the words hidden in the puzzle. Write them on the lines.
What is the Difference Between an Emotion and a Feeling?
Some believe that emotions lead to feelings. Others believe the inverse to be true. So which is it or are they both correct? The American Psychology Association seems to support that the two words are basically interchangeable. While that does hold some water, there are glaring differences between the two words.
Emotions are considered to be a less critical response that affects our human psychological state. They help us react quickly to our environment. Our emotional memories tend be much more prolonged than our memories towards feelings. Emotions affect our biochemical reactions at a much higher level for certain.
Our feelings work off of our mental rolodex of emotions. A feeling is a slatted on our experiences. If we intrinsically know that a feeling has previously led us to a certain emotional state in the past, we catalog that feeling much more harshly. We subconsciously link feelings to particular emotions and response based on that.
How Do We Help Students Explore Their Own Feelings?
This is often a tricky area where teachers kind of brush over it. If we want to promote a positive state of mental health for our students, this is often an essential aspect of it. Students will travel through life running into to new emotions that are provoked by their situations and experiences. Being shown what is a positive and negative way to adjust to something is pivotal in students understanding the appropriate actions for them to take themselves.
It begins with students first understanding what each feeling is and not only naming it is but understanding when this type of emotion would most likely bubble to the surface. I find that exploring this through stories is a great way to take pressure off the subject entirely. It can be in the form of a book, TV show, or any medium where these themes are explored. Students are much more apt to participate in a dialogue when it is presented in a fictional environment.
Once we have fully explored the concept of these feelings, we need to help students understand strategies to cope with them. The coping mechanisms should all begin with the concept of wait time. This is the amount of time you should spend thinking about a proactive way you can react. If it is extreme situation, you may want to think of it as putting yourself in timeout. Students should learn that the best way to deal with all types of emotions is to talk about it with someone that they trust and respect.
The best way to help proactive behavior to become a habit is to constantly reinforce it and model it regularly. Also, it is helpful to identify teachable moments and share those with your entire class. Some teachers are amazingly comfortable appropriately sharing their personal lives. It is often helpful to share stories that students can learn positive behaviors. I would also encourage you to talk about this with parents and have them try to see how they may do the same at home. The more positive reinforcement students receive, the quicker they will make adjustments to their own lives.
