About the Emotions & Feelings Odd One Out 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 on the Emotions & Feelings board
The tiles in play — 12 in all, one of which keeps being the odd one out: 😊 Happy😢 Sad😠 Angry😲 Surprised😨 Scared😴 Sleepy🤣 Giggly😌 Calm🥰 Loved🤔 Curious😎 Confident🤗 Cuddly
Study tip: the odd one out is chosen by difference, so learn the board as groups. If you know the first three tiles — happy, sad and angry — belong together, anything that breaks that set stands out instantly.
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.
How to Play
- Press Start. A grid appears — almost every tile shows the same picture.
- Scan the grid for the one tile that is different.
- Tap it before the timer runs out.
- Each round adds more tiles and less time. Three misses ends the run.
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.
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.