Emotion Cards with Media Faces

Recognizing and Expressing Emotions Through Media Images

Children explore how media images and characters show emotions and create their own expressive faces.

Lernergebnisse

Format
Kunst
Kompetenzen
- Emotionale Kompetenz
- Visual decoding
- Empathy development
- Media awareness
- Expression and communication skills
Zielgruppe
3 Jahre und älter
- Kleine Gruppen
Benötigte Materialien
- Printed media images showing different emotions (photos, emojis, cartoon faces)
- Drawing paper, crayons, clay or playdough
- Mirrors for children to observe their own expressions
Materialien
- Emotion cards

Druckversion

Anleitung zur Aktivität (Schritt für Schritt)

Vorbereitung:

Gather the children and show pictures of faces from media (cartoons, photos, emojis).

Durchführung:

Ask: "How do they feel?" and "How can you tell?" (eyes, mouth, eyebrows).

Encourage children to imitate the expressions and name the emotions.

Discuss how we can recognise feelings in people and characters.

Invite children to draw or model their own "emotion faces" using paper or clay.

Share and talk about the creations: "Who is this? How do they feel? Why?"

Abwandlungen und zusätzliche Ideen

Continue this activity with Expressive-emotional Photography.

Make a class "Emotion Wall" with the children's artwork.

Play a guessing game: one child shows a face, others guess the emotion.

Use short media clips and pause to discuss how the characters might feel.

Use short news media clips and pause to discuss how they might make the child feel.

Hintergrundinformationen und didaktische Perspektiven

Understanding emotions in media supports both media literacy and social-emotional learning (SEL). Recognizing how feelings are shown in images helps children interpret media messages and respond empathetically. By linking visual cues to emotions, children learn that media characters express feelings just as people do, though sometimes in exaggerated ways. Creating their own emotion faces deepens understanding through active expression and play. The activity enhances emotional vocabulary, empathy, and nonverbal communication while encouraging reflection on how media influence our perception of emotions.