Recipe for Fun
This game helps kids learn and practice different emotions while also developing their deductive reasoning and critical thinking skills. Additionally, when a child loses their turn, it creates an opportunity to practice overcoming difficult emotions like frustration and disappointment.
STEP 1: Take the time to make a list of approximately 20-25 different emotions with your child. Depending on their age, you will either have to make suggestions or let your child make the list on their own.
STEP 2: Once you have a list of emotions, ask your child to take their time to draw each emotion on an index card and write the name of the emotion below the image. For example, show them how to draw “surprised” like this: 😲 or "happy" like this: 😀
STEP 3: When all the emotion cards have been completed, start the game by placing the cards face down in the center of the playing area.
STEP 4: Each player takes a headband and adjusts it around his/her head. Make sure the headband sits above the eyebrows and centered on the forehead.
STEP 5: Deal one card face down to each player. Without looking at the picture side of the card, help your child tape their card or use a paper clip to secure the card onto the front of their headband so all the other players can see the picture. Make sure they cannot see their emotion card!
STEP 6: Start the game with the youngest player and begin the timer. (If you don’t have a timer, determine the length of each guessing round.) Instruct your child to ask each of the other players a “yes or no” question that will help them identify the emotion picture taped to their headband. Suggested questions: Do I feel this emotion in the summertime? Do I feel this emotion at school?
STEP 7: Continue asking questions until the timer runs out. If the player guesses the picture before the timer runs out, take another card and put it on the headband again, remembering not to peek! If time has run out and your child has asked all the other players a question and hasn’t guessed their emotion, move on to the next player.
STEP 8: Guess correctly and get a point. Guess incorrectly and lose the turn. The first player to earn three points wins!
Benefits of Play: Emotional, Cognitive, Social, Communication