Feelings games for kids

What social emotional learning means

Social emotional learning, often called SEL, is how kids learn to understand their feelings, manage them, notice how other people feel and get along with friends. Schools usually describe it as a handful of skills: knowing your own feelings, handling them, understanding others, building good relationships and making kind, thoughtful choices.

It starts with words. A child who can say "I'm frustrated" instead of throwing the puzzle has already done the hardest part. Games are a low pressure place to practice, because the feelings belong to a cartoon friend, not to your child.

Which game practices what

• Kindly Cove (ages 4 to 8): kids learn ten feelings, starting with happy, sad, mad and scared and growing to worried, proud, frustrated, left out and calm. They read faces and body language, think through short everyday moments like a lost toy or being new, choose a helpful action, and practice three calm-down tools: a breathing bubble, counting waves and squeeze and let go.
• Story Sleuth (ages 6 to 10): short mystery stories with why and how questions, including how a character felt and what made them feel that way, with the sentence that proves it.

Gentle by design

In Kindly Cove the moments are everyday ones, and nobody is ever the bad guy. Every question is read aloud, and each choice lights up as it's read, so children who can't read yet can play on their own. The game never makes a child feel guilty for stopping, and there are no streaks to keep up.

Tips for grown-ups

• Name your own feelings. "I'm frustrated the car won't start. I'm going to take a big breath." Kids learn by hearing it.
• Check in at dinner. Ask everyone for one feeling from the day and what caused it.
• Practice calm when it's calm. Try the breathing bubble together on a good day, so it's ready on a hard one.
• Ask about characters. While reading a book, ask how a character feels and how they can tell.

No ads, no accounts, no tracking

Our learning games have no ads, no accounts, no chat and no purchases, and they don't use analytics. Progress stays in the browser on your device. For more, see our music games for kids, our phonics games or all our learning games.

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