About the Emotions & Feelings Memory Game
Happy, sad, giggly or grumpy — learning to name feelings is one of the most important skills a small person can build. This deck doubles as a brilliant conversation starter for parents, teachers and therapists.
What's in the Emotions & Feelings deck
The full deck, so you know exactly what you're up against — 12 cards, 6 pairs: 😊 Happy😢 Sad😠 Angry😲 Surprised😨 Scared😴 Sleepy🤣 Giggly😌 Calm🥰 Loved🤔 Curious😎 Confident🤗 Cuddly
Study tip: link the first three — happy, sad and angry — into one ridiculous mental picture. Absurd images stick; lists don't. Then do the same for the next three, and the board will memorise itself.
How to memorise a learning deck
Learning decks — letters, numbers, colours — are the ones to play with your voice. Say each item out loud as you study the board: the label, not just the symbol. Spoken repetition loads both the visual and the phonological memory systems at once, which is exactly the double-encoding classroom practice relies on.
Test recall by naming, not just matching. After the board hides, ask "which letter was next to the butterfly?" — questions like that force retrieval, and retrieval is what turns a quick game into actual learning. Matching alone can be done on autopilot; naming cannot.
Fun Facts About Emotions & Feelings
- People all over the world recognise the same basic facial expressions, whatever language they speak.
- Naming a feeling out loud actually helps your brain calm it down.
- Laughter really is contagious — your brain primes your face to smile when you hear it.
- Goosebumps are an emotional response left over from when our ancestors had much more hair.
How to Play
Tap any card to flip it over, revealing the feeling image underneath. Tap a second card — if the two match, they stay face up and you keep going. If not, they flip back after a moment. Your goal is to match every pair in as few moves as possible.
Three difficulty levels are available: easy (6 pairs), medium (8 pairs) and hard (12 pairs). Switch between them any time with the difficulty buttons above the board. Start on easy if you're new, or jump straight to hard for a proper brain workout.
Learning deck questions
Can these decks help with reading and counting?
As practice, yes — matching uppercase to pictures and saying letter names and numbers aloud reinforces what phonics and counting lessons teach. They are a supplement to teaching, not a replacement for it.
Which board should a five-year-old start on?
Easy — six pairs. The win rate matters more than the challenge at this stage: a child who beats the easy board three times will march to medium on their own, and one who loses hard boards twice will not.