Emotional Animals Dice

This is one of my favorite activities when teaching kids (or adults) about emotions. Emotional Animals Dice is a simple game that requires kids to think about different emotions then act them out for you or the rest of group. The fun part is that they act those emotions out as an animal. We originally found this idea on the Sweeter than Sweets blog. Here’s how it works:

1. Find or make two dice. You can find solid wood dice at places like Hobby Lobby. We used dry erase dice which allows us to change the animals and/or the emotions on the fly. So, for example, if there is a particular circumstance or emotion a child is dealing with you can add it to the dice to make sure it comes up while you’re playing. You can find the ones we used on Amazon.com.
2. Write the names of six animals on one of the dice. Options may include:
   • Sad
   • Happy
   • Angry
   • Afraid
   • Loving
   • Stressed
   • Confused
   • Nervous
   • Lonely
   • Disgusted
3. Write the names of six animals on the other dice. Options may include:
   •  Cat
   • Dog
   • Hamster
   • Snake
   • Monkey
   • Mouse
   • Lion
   • Elephant
   • Cow
   • Bird
4. Have the child role the dice and act out the combination that comes up the dice.
5. For an added layer of the game, have the child come up with a way to deal with that emotion and act that out as an animal as well.
6. Another idea is to have the child role the dice but not let the other kids see them. Have the rest of the group guess both the emotion and the animal.

For more awesome resources for learning about and dealing with emotions, please visit our Hope 4 Hurting Kids Emotions Help Center.