21 Emotional Intelligence Activities, Exercises, and Worksheets

Things that may seem like a minor hiccup to parents can feel like the reason for a child’s meltdown. That’s because they haven’t yet developed emotional intelligence. In this article, we’ve curated 21 emotional intelligence activities that can help children develop self-awareness, empathy, and regulation.

These exercises and worksheets can provide a roadmap for raising smart, emotionally resilient children.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage one’s emotions effectively. It can come in handy when a child is building friendships, overcoming conflict, empathizing with others, and solving problems.

Daniel Goleman is an early pioneer in the field of emotional intelligence in children. He emphasizes that emotional intelligence isn’t innate, but developed through education and parenting [*]. Goleman’s framework emphasizes five core components. For a child to develop high emotional intelligence, they must learn to be self-aware, self-regulated, motivated, empathetic, and socially aware.

Benefits of Emotional Intelligence Activities, Exercises, and Worksheets

Consistently integrating emotional intelligence activities, exercises, and worksheets helps your child build a foundational toolkit for everyday life. Here are some of the benefits your child can enjoy.

Improves emotional regulation

Nurturing your child’s emotional intelligence puts them in a better position to use their emotions to make constructive decisions about their behavior. When they’re overwhelmed, they may struggle to think clearly and be rational.

Using tools like activities and worksheets to teach your child about emotional intelligence helps them stay in control of their feelings without letting them override their self-control.

Reduces conflict

Emotionally intelligent children are good at practicing active listening. They can set their feelings aside and listen to understand instead of to react. When children understand others’ emotions and perspectives, they can address the root of the disagreement and work toward a solution with empathy and respect.

Builds resilience

As children learn to manage intense emotions, they can stay calm, focused, and objective. These skills can come in handy in stressful, high-pressure situations that can be emotionally triggering.

Suppose your child is learning to play baseball. A resilient child will understand that missing the ball doesn’t make them a bad player. Instead, they’ll come to the rational conclusion that they may need more practice to improve their swing.

Emotional Intelligence Activities

Schools or play groups are excellent environments for introducing emotional intelligence activities. Here are some exercises you can introduce to children in groups.

Emotional Weather Check-In

When explaining how to name emotions to children, it’s important to simplify concepts without making them boring and unrelatable. This activity involves likening emotions to the weather.

For example, someone feeling upset and explosive might compare their emotions to a raging storm. On the other hand, someone feeling uplifted and bright might compare their emotions to a sunny day.

I Used to Think

Part of being emotionally intelligent is realizing that emotions can change. Getting into an argument with a friend, for example, can be frustrating in the moment, but your child will eventually calm down and be in a better frame of mind to understand why their friend might have been upset.

In this simple classroom exercise, each child will complete two sentences: “I used to think…” and “Now I think…”

Back-Turned Feedback

For some children, it’s easy to talk about others behind their backs. In this exercise, children will do exactly this, but with a more positive and constructive approach.

In a group setting, you can ask one child to sit facing away from their classmates while the rest recite compliments, such as their favorite thing about that person, their strengths, and general appreciation.

Values Collage

Values differ from person to person, but learning to respect and understand them can strengthen friendships and improve social skills.

For this activity, children will use print-outs or cut-outs to create a collage that represents their values. These values may reflect how they approach friendships, family relationships, and general outlooks.

Conflict Role-Play

Role-playing a foreseeable conflict can prepare children for disagreements among friends and classmates. It helps them practice expressing their emotions constructively and listening actively. The more scenarios they explore, the better they’ll exercise their de-escalation skills.

Group Co-Regulation

This mindfulness-based activity asks children to sit in a circle. The first child starts a simple rhythm, like two claps. The next child joins in, then the next, and so on. The group leader (the first child) will then change the tempo and rhythm, and everyone else will follow. This activity mirrors interpersonal synchrony, which can increase social connections [*].

Emotion Statues

For this activity, you’ll create two groups: artists and the clay. A teacher will assign an emotion to the artists in secret, who will then “mold” the clay into an interpretation of this emotion. This exercise makes children more aware of microexpressions and body language.

Emotional Intelligence Exercises

Teaching your child about emotional intelligence at home? Here are some exercises they can do with you or on their own.

Letter to Myself

Sometimes, the best way to understand one’s own emotions is view them from another perspective. By writing a letter to themselves, children can talk to themselves as they would a friend: with care, compassion, and understanding.

In this letter, ask your child to reflect on a specific incident and what they could’ve done to approach it better. Here’s an example of what this letter might look like.

Dear Me,

I’m writing to you because today was a little tough. I know you felt really angry when you lost that board game with your friend and ended up yelling. It felt like you couldn’t control yourself.

It’s okay to feel disappointed about losing, but it wasn’t fair of you to yell at your friends. Next time, you can take a few deep breaths and let your friend know they played a good game.

I’m already proud of you for trying harder to be patient and kind!

Sincerely,
Me

Roses, Buds, and Thorns

When children make mistakes, they can often become self-critical. Instead of resorting to self-blame, introduce a more constructive way to reflect on these mistakes. In this case, the roses are your child’s strengths. The buds are their areas for improvement, and the thorns are their challenges.

Emotion Diary

Keeping track of emotions can help children recognize patterns or identify triggers. Have your child keep an emotion diary, where they’ll reflect on their “main emotion” of the day. When writing a journal entry, they’ll externalize their feelings through experiences and evidence, then brainstorm ways to manage these emotions.

Mirror Mimicking

Ask your child to stand in front of a mirror while you read certain emotions out loud. Then, your child will make a face that corresponds to the emotion.

Research shows that consciously mimicking certain facial expressions improves a child’s ability to recognize these emotions in other people [*].

Kindness Bingo

A little kindness can go a long way in someone’s day. Create a kindness bingo card for your child, with simple suggestions, such as complimenting someone, helping out a friend in need, or holding the door for someone. Prosocial behaviors like these can release oxytocin in the brain, which reduces stress [*].

Circle of Control Art

The circle of control helps children visualize what is within and outside their control. In this activity, you’ll ask your child to draw a large circle and write down things they can control—their words, actions, and how they behave around others.

Outside of this circle, they’ll reflect on things they can’t control, such as other people’s reactions. This exercise helps children focus on actionable concerns instead of external stressors.

Calm-Down Kit

Does your child have a go-to object that makes them feel safe? If so, you can put together a calm-down kit that your child can use to self-soothe. They might include items like a fidget toy, stuffed animal, or even their favorite book.

Emotional Intelligence Worksheets

Is your child a visual learner? These emotional intelligence worksheets can be a great additions to their learning toolkit.

Emotional Boundaries - How to Build Resilience

When children allow people’s negative thoughts to overwhelm them, it can feel impossible to recover emotionally. Building resilience is part of achieving emotional wellness. By understanding what’s within their control, choosing a healthy response, and building mental protection, children become more resilient.

Download it here

Identifying Feelings

Expressing emotions can be challenging for children who haven’t yet developed a rich emotional vocabulary. If your child lacks the tools to express how they’re feeling, knowing how to identify signs and reactions can help them explore and understand their emotions more clearly.

Download it here

Managing Feelings and Emotions

Identifying feelings is the first step. Learning how to manage these emotions is the next step. This five-page worksheet bundle helps children brainstorm and develop coping skills when they’re feeling frightened, sad, disappointed, angry, confused, bored, or mad.

It also lists suggestions for coping skills, such as stopping and walking away, taking belly breaths, and using a fidget toy.

Download it here

DBT Purpose of Emotions

Children feel many things they don’t want to feel, but understanding that these emotions have a purpose can help them accept difficult situations.

This worksheet outlines the three primary functions of emotions: motivation, communication, and self-validation. Studying these functions can help children tackle common issues like peer pressure, differences in values, and arguments with friends or siblings.

Download it here

Preparing for Anger

Sometimes, anger can sneak up on a child when they least expect it. Preparing oneself to face potentially angering situations can help children develop healthier responses to conflict. This worksheet asks children to reflect on what makes them angry and to brainstorm coping mechanisms they can use when they face these triggers.

Download it here

Feelings and Emotions Alphabet

Occasionally, your child might experience an emotion they don’t have the words to describe. In such cases, they can benefit from using an emotions alphabet, which illustrates various feelings with different expressions.

Download it here

Decatastrophizing CBT Handout

When something bad happens, it’s not uncommon for a child to panic or feel like everything is “going downhill.” That’s called catastrophizing. When children exercise their emotional intelligence, they learn not to catastrophize and instead to evaluate the situation rationally and with grace.

Download it here

The Bottom Line

When children make mistakes, emotional intelligence helps them manage frustration and learn from the experience. With these exercises and worksheets, you can turn these “incidents” into opportunities for growth.

Use our feelings worksheets to help your child stay in touch with their emotions.

Sources:

1. Sadiku M, Olaleye O, Musa S, Perry R. “Emotional Intelligence in Children.” International Journal of Trend in Research and Development, 2020.
2. Hu Y, Cheng X, Pan Y, Hu Y. “The intrapersonal and interpersonal consequences of interpersonal synchrony.” Acta Psychologica, 2022.
3. Prochazkova E, Kret ME. “Connecting minds and sharing emotions through mimicry: A neurocognitive model of emotional contagion.” Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 2017.
4. Ito E, Shima R, Yoshioka T. “A novel role of oxytocin: Oxytocin-induced well-being in humans.” Biophysics and Physicobiology, 2019.