Feelings Worksheet: Happy or Sad?
Looking closely at faces and deciding whether they show happy or sad builds emotional literacy, the ability to read facial cues and put a name to a feeling, in children ages 3-5. This is an early and important social-emotional milestone, since recognizing emotions in others is a first step toward empathy and toward naming their own feelings instead of just acting them out.
Part of the pack
Month 1: Learning & Development | Ages 4-5Curriculum
How to use this worksheet
Look at each face on the page with your child and ask, 'What do you think this person is feeling?' Point out clues like an upturned mouth for happy or a downturned mouth and furrowed brow for sad. Once your child identifies each face correctly, let them color the happy faces one color and the sad faces another, talking through their choice as they go. Ask your child to make that same face themselves before moving to the next one.
Materials needed
- Pencil
- Crayons
Extension activities
- •Stand in front of a mirror together and take turns making happy, sad, surprised, and silly faces.
- •Play a feelings guessing game where one person makes a face and the other names the emotion.
- •Read a picture book with clear emotional expressions and pause on each page to ask how the character feels.
- •Look through family photos and sort them into piles by the feeling shown on each face.
- •Make a simple paper plate with a happy face on one side and a sad face on the other to hold up during the day.
Tips for parents and teachers
Some children at this age can identify happy easily but struggle to distinguish sad from angry or tired, so it helps to name the specific facial clues out loud each time. Avoid rushing them past a face they're unsure of; let them study it and guess before you confirm. Use this worksheet as a springboard to ask how your child is feeling right now, modeling that naming feelings is normal and welcome.
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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