Bay Area Discovery Museum’s emotion freeze activity builds emotional understanding.
Skills Addressed
Communication
Connecting with Others
Perspective Taking
Activity Details
Use cards created in the Emotion Card activity. Put all the cards face down in a basket, bin, or bag. Alternatively, you can find photos in books, cut out pictures from magazines, or print pictures off the Internet.
Pick a card out of the container (or choose one of the photos you’ve found) without letting children see the image on it. Act out the emotion depicted on the card using exaggerated facial expressions and body language. For example, if you draw the “sad” card or photo, you could hunch your shoulders over and pretend to cry.
Ask children to guess what emotion you are acting out and explain how they knew. Help them focus their explanations on what they observed: for example, “I knew you were excited because you smiled and jumped up and down!”
Give children a turn to pick a card and act out the emotion. Remind them not to show the card to anyone else. Take turns acting out emotions until all the cards have been drawn.
