Pass the Emotion

Topic
- Identity & emotions
Learning skills
- Empathy & social awareness
- Communication & expression
- Gross motor skills
Activity type
- Circle group game
- Ball game
Materials
- Basic
Age
- 6 - 11 years
>15 minutes
+5 players
Intermediate
Medium
Medium (classroom, square)

Contributors

Minor Ndako

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Everything you need to play this game

Soft ball
Stack of emotion cards
Paper
Pens
Scissors

Make it yourself

Step 1

Prepare the emotion cards

Cut a paper into smaller pieces and write a different emotion on each piece of paper (see PDF for a list of emotions).

Good job!

A step-by-step guide to play the game

Gather the players in a circle with about half a meter of space between each person.

Each player thinks of an emotion they can personally relate to.

One by one, players reveal their chosen emotion by acting out this emotion.

Give a soft ball to the first player. After acting out his chosen emotion, the player throws the ball to another player but must throw it expressing the emotion they just acted out (e.g., if the emotion was 'anger', they might throw the ball with a bit of force).

The receiving player catches the ball and acts out the emotion that was just thrown at them.

Then, he acts out their own chosen emotion before choosing the next player to throw the ball to.

After everyone has had their turn, gather in a circle. Ask the following questions:

What did everyone feel?
Was it challenging to express or recognise the emotions?
Are there any emotions that were not chosen?
What did you learn about expressing and interpreting emotions?
How can you apply these skill in your daily live?

You can play a second round with other emotions.

Extra game information

This game is part of the toolkit ‘Facing trauma - A toolkit on trauma-informed support for children and youth’. This toolkit is a cooperation between StreetSmart, Minor-Ndako, Save the Children Romania & SolidarityNow, cofinanced by the European Union. It provides simple tools to explore important topics like trauma, stress, self-care and emotions in a way that’s easy to use with different target groups.

Source: www.spelactief.nl

Variations

Instead of letting the players decide which emotion they want to portray, lay out a stack of emotion cards from which the players have to choose/pull one.

What people said about this game

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