Emotions Matching Worksheet for Preschoolers
Recognizing and naming emotions is a foundational social-emotional skill for children ages 3-5, helping them build the vocabulary needed to express their own feelings and understand the feelings of others. This worksheet asks children to match emotion words to corresponding facial expressions, strengthening their ability to read facial cues — a skill that supports empathy and smoother social interactions. Building this kind of emotional vocabulary early also gives children better tools for self-regulation, since naming a feeling is often the first step toward managing it.
Curriculum
How to use this worksheet
Read each emotion word aloud together and talk briefly about what that feeling looks and feels like. Look at the row of emoji or facial expressions and ask your child to find the one that matches each word. Have them draw a line connecting each emotion word to its matching picture. Once finished, go back through the page and ask your child to make that facial expression themselves for a couple of the emotions.
Materials needed
- Pencil
- Eraser
Extension activities
- •Discuss times when your child felt each emotion, encouraging them to describe what happened and how it felt.
- •Act out different emotions together using only facial expressions and body language, guessing what the other person is feeling.
- •Draw pictures of themselves expressing different feelings and label each drawing with the emotion word.
- •Read a picture book with clear emotional moments and pause to name how a character might be feeling.
Tips for parents and teachers
Encourage your child to talk about how they feel and why, since this worksheet is a great starting point for discussing feelings and building emotional vocabulary beyond just matching. Watch for emotions that are harder for your child to identify, like 'frustrated' or 'nervous,' and spend extra time discussing those specifically. Keep the tone open and curious rather than quizzing, since emotional vocabulary develops best through relaxed conversation.
Written by
Hemsweta Jain · Teacher Cheena
MBA and Early Childhood Educator, teaching since 2014 · Founder of RaisoActive, Mumbai
Every RaisoActive worksheet is designed and checked by the founder before publishing.
Published · Last reviewed
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