I offer you 17 psychological games for the development of emotional intelligence, which are suitable for children and adults of all ages. These games will help children and adults to develop emotional intelligence in a fun and interactive way. The games can be adapted to the age of the participants, modified in duration and made more difficult for greater effectiveness.

# 1. Emotional Faces Game

Purpose: To improve the ability to recognize and express emotions.
How to play:

1. Make cards with pictures of faces expressing basic emotions and feelings (Izard, in her book The Psychology of Emotions, lists 11 basic, or fundamental, emotions: guilt, anger, interest, disgust, sadness, contempt, joy, embarrassment, fear, shame, and surprise).
2. Show the card to the participants and ask them to act out the expression of the emotion shown on the card.
3. Discuss what signs (facial expressions, gestures) help to recognize each emotion.

# 2. Emotion Stories Game

Purpose: To develop empathy and storytelling skills.
How to play:

1.Write different situations on cards:

Problem situations for young children:

1. You have lost your favorite toy. How do you feel and what will you do?
2. Your best friend doesn’t want to play with you. How will you deal with this?
3- You were not invited to a classmate’s birthday party. How did you feel and what did you do?
4.You received a long-awaited present. How did you react?
5. You accidentally broke someone else’s item. What will you do about it?
6. You are being teased at school. How did you feel and what will you do?
7. You lost a game you really wanted to win. How do you feel about it?
8. You miss your parents when they are away. How do you deal with these feelings?
9. You missed a cartoon you really wanted to watch. How do you react?
10. You had a fight with your brother or sister. How do you feel and how will you act?
11.Your parents told you that you can’t stay over for a sleepover at a friend’s house. How do you feel about it?
12. You don’t understand an assignment in class. What will you do?
13. You are confused with another child and called by a different name. How will you react?
14. You saw someone hurting another child. How did you feel and what will you do?
15. You didn’t get the part you wanted in the school play. How will you handle it?

Problem situations for teenagers:

1. Your friend told everyone your secret. How do you feel and what will you do?
2. You received an unsatisfactory grade on an important exam. How will you react?
3. You want to take part in an activity, but your parents won’t let you. What will you do?
4. You witnessed bullying at school. How did you feel and what will you do?
5. You have been denied a loving relationship. How will you deal with your emotions?
6. You saw someone crying in the school hallway. What will you do about it?
7. You didn’t make the sports team you really wanted to join. How will you handle it?
8. One of your close friends suddenly stopped talking to you. How will you react?
9. You faced unfair treatment from a teacher. How did you feel?
10. Your parents announced that you are moving to another city. How will you cope with it?
11.Your friend has started dating your significant other. What will you do about it?
12. You discover unkind comments on your social media profile. How will you feel and what will you do?
13. You missed an important event due to illness. How will you handle it?
14. You heard an unpleasant rumor about yourself. How will you react?
15. You are facing financial difficulties in your family. How will you deal with your emotions and support your family?

2.  Participants draw a card and tell a story, describing the emotions they would feel in these situations. Each participant offers a different solution to the situation

3.  Discuss together how different people might react differently to the same situation. These sample situations will help children and teens develop their emotional intelligence, find solutions to difficult situations, and improve their communication skills.

# 3. Emotional collage

Purpose: To develop skills in expressing and understanding one’s own emotions.
How to play:

1. Have participants create a collage using different magazines, newspapers, pictures, and other decorative items.
2. The theme of the collage is “How I feel today.”
3. When completed, each participant explains why they chose those particular images and how they relate to their emotions.

#4: Emotional Bingo

Purpose: To practice mindfulness of emotions and develop observation skills.
How to play:

1. Self-create bingo cards with different emotional states (fundamental emotions: guilt, anger, interest, disgust, sadness, contempt, joy, embarrassment, fear, shame, and surprise) .
2. As you create the cards, talk in detail about the main attributes of each emotion.
3. Throughout the day, participants label the cards with emotions they have noticed in others or experienced themselves. What was the cause of that particular emotion?

# 5: The Secret Friend of Emotions

Purpose: To develop skills in matching support and understanding other people’s feelings.
How to play:

1. Each participant is secretly assigned a “secret friend” to watch over the course of a day or week.
2. Each participant’s task is to help their secret friend cope with their emotions and support them.
3. At the end of the week, a group discussion: how did you manage to feel the emotions of the other, what was helpful and why.

# 6. Emotional Composition

Purpose: To develop skills in expressing emotions in writing.
How to play: Ask participants to write a short essay or story about their day, focusing on describing the emotions experienced throughout the day.

# 7. Emotional Stones

Purpose: To develop self-awareness and drawing.
How to play: Allow participants to color rocks according to different emotions. After coloring, discuss with the group the associations and feelings evoked by the colors and drawings.

# 8. Mood Scale

Purpose: To develop an understanding and appreciation of inner states.
How to play: On large sheets of paper, draw a mood scale from “Very Bad” to “Very Good.” Allow participants to place their names on the appropriate parts of the scale at the beginning and end of the activity. Analyze the reasons for these states.

# 9. The Magic of Fairy Tales

Purpose: To develop imagination and empathy.
How to play: Make up fairy tales with different colorful emotional content. Have each participant tell a different fairy tale, expressing the emotions of the characters.

# 10. Vocabulary of Emotions

Purpose: To expand emotional vocabulary.
How to play: Have participants write down all the emotions they know. Then discuss each emotion, adding new words and synonyms to their vocabulary.

# 11: Emotions in the Body

Purpose: To develop the physical expression of emotions.
How to play: Ask participants to stand up and suggest different situations. Have each person display the appropriate emotion (e.g., jumping for joy, moaning for sadness, sighing for disappointment, pain of loss, tenderness for empathy, etc.).

# 12. Diary of Emotions

Purpose: To improve awareness and management of emotions.
How to play: Have participants keep a diary, writing down each day their emotions and the events that triggered them. Note how they resonated in the body and how they influenced participants’ future thoughts and behaviors.

# 13. Guess what I’m feeling

Purpose: To develop empathy and understanding of emotional reactions.
How to play: Participants sit in a circle, each takes turns using facial expressions and gestures to describe the emotion they have guessed, while the other participants guess the answers. Discuss what is the reason for these emotional experiences.

# 14. Emotional puzzle

Purpose: To develop the ability to recognize and analyze emotions.
How to Play: Divide groups into teams and give them puzzles with pictures of emotions. Teams must put the puzzle together and explain which emotion is depicted.

#15. Emotional Rhymes

Purpose: To develop creativity and self-expression.
How to Play: Ask participants to write short poems expressing their real emotions or emotions they have experienced during the day.

# 16. Theater of Emotions

Purpose: To develop acting skills and self-expression.
How to Play: Divide participants into groups and ask them to act out skits that express certain emotions. After each skit, discuss what emotions were expressed. You can also use the list of problem situations from # 2 Emotion Stories Game.

# 17. Masks of Emotions

Purpose: To develop self-expression and understanding of inner states.
How to Play: Give participants the opportunity to make masks expressing different emotions and then use them in role-playing and discussion.

I hope you find these activities useful, they will help children and adults to better understand and express their emotions, developing emotional intelligence in a fun and accessible way.