Match the Feelings Card Game

Play a game to help kids become better acquainted with identifying feelings and reading expressions. This preschool game or activity was inspired by the book The Gingerbread Man Loose at Christmas but can be used anytime you’re looking for a holiday matching game or activity.

Have your child review the image above and explain the activity to you. Follow their lead. There are two identical pages to print and cut here, so that you can find pairs. Have your child look at the expressions for clues — how do the eyes look? How does each mouth look? Are the cheeks the same? There are six expressions (happy, sad, surprised, angry, happy and calm). Once you become familiar with the different looks, add another layer of fun by turning the cards upside down to practice turning them over and matching them too.

Here are the four steps illustrated above:

1. (Print and) cut out the cards.

2. Familiarize yourself with the cards and try to make a match.

3. It’s a match! Set the matching pair aside.

4. Look for another match; continue until all the gingerbread cookies have found their match.

Here are some book-based talking points:

1. What was your favorite part of the book? Why?

2. For what reason did the children make presents?

3. Were the people happy to receive the gifts? What made you think this?

4. Why does the Gingerbread Man get separated from the class?

5. What causes the Gingerbread Man’s icing to start dripping?

6. What was the Gingerbread Man’s special surprise gift?

7. Who did the Gingerbread Man give his special surprise gift to?

8. What does the baker do to help the Gingerbread Man?

9. What does the class do for the teacher?

10. Is there anything in this book that you’d like to talk about?

11. Is there anything in this book that you didn’t understand?