Feelings Worksheet for Kids: Free PDF for Ages 8 to 17
I’m a clinical psychologist working with young people who have emotional or behavioural challenges. One thing I know for certain: when a child can name what they’re feeling, they become less overwhelmed, and they make better choices.
Yet emotional literacy, the ability to recognise and express feelings, is something we rarely teach directly. This free two-page feelings worksheet for kids pdf is a small but genuinely useful step in that direction. It’s colourful, accessible, and suitable for ages 8 to 17.
How to Get Your Free Worksheet
This is a free pdf feelings worksheet. Simply click the button below, enter your email address, and the worksheet will be sent straight to your inbox. It’s a practical resource you can use straight away with the children or teenagers in your life.
What’s Inside the Worksheet
This is a two-page printable worksheet with visual illustrations, designed to feel inviting rather than clinical. Children work through a series of reflective prompts at their own pace.
Page one asks children to think about what triggers four core emotions and feelings: fear, joy, sadness, and anger. Prompts include:
- What makes you feel happy?
- What makes you feel sad?
- What makes you feel angry?
- What makes you feel fear?
These questions help children build a personal list of emotions and begin to identify feelings they may not have named before. That process of naming is the foundation of emotional regulation, and it matters enormously for wellbeing.
Page two moves into reflective thinking, with questions that spark genuine discussion:
- Do you think it’s ever healthy to hide your emotions? Why or why not?
- Is it okay to show anger?
- How do emotions and feelings affect the way you make decisions?
- Do you think all emotions are useful? Why or why not?
These questions help children understand emotions more deeply, not just what they feel, but why those feelings exist and what purpose they serve.
This kind of thinking is particularly helpful for children who struggle with anxiety, stress, or who are prone to an emotional outburst when feelings build up unexpectedly.
TAKE THE QUIZ!
Who Is This Worksheet For?
This resource works well across a wide range of settings.
In the classroom, teachers can use page one as a quiet individual activity, then open up page two for a group discussion. It’s a natural fit for PSHE, social and emotional learning, and behaviour support programmes.
In small groups, the worksheet gives children a structured way to begin talking about feelings. It works especially well for SEN groups, where a visual, guided format removes the pressure of open-ended conversation.
At home, parents can use it as a starting point for talking about emotions and feelings in an everyday way, perhaps after school, during a calm moment, or when a child has been struggling. It can open doors that are otherwise hard to unlock.
Social workers, school counsellors, and pastoral support staff will also find it a helpful and non-threatening tool for one-to-one work.
Why Emotional Awareness Matters
When children don’t learn to identify feelings or express feelings, those feelings tend to come out in other ways, through anger management difficulties, avoidance, withdrawal, or sudden emotional outbursts.
Learning to understand emotions helps children notice their early warning signs before feelings escalate. They begin to recognise body sensations like the tight chest before a panic, or the hot face before an argument, and that awareness gives them more choice about how to respond.
This worksheet won’t do all of that on its own, but it’s a fantastic starting point: a way of saying to a child, “your emotions and feelings matter, and it’s worth thinking about them.” From there, conversations about coping skills, coping strategies, and emotional regulation become much more natural.
Free emotions worksheets like this one sit alongside other helpful tools, such as a feelings thermometer to track intensity, or an emotion volcano to explore how feelings build through stages of emotion before they spill over. Used together, they build real emotional literacy that children can carry into adult life.
My worksheet is free for personal, classroom, and professional use. Please don’t redistribute or sell the file. If you find it useful, share the link so others can get their own copy.
Dr Lucy Russell is a UK clinical psychologist and Clinical Director of Everlief Child Psychology. She qualified as a clinical psychologist from Oxford University in 2005 and worked in the National Health Service for many years before moving fully into her leadership and writing roles.
In 2019 Lucy launched They Are The Future, a support website for parents of school-aged children. Through TATF Lucy is passionate about giving practical, manageable strategies to parents and children who may otherwise struggle to find the support they need.
Lucy lives with her family, rescue cats and dog, and also fosters cats through a local animal welfare charity. She loves singing in a vocal harmony group and spending time in nature.
