Emotion Identification and Matching Cards

About this resource

EVERYTHING INSIDE — 25 pages, 176 type-in fields

• An Emotion Reference Chart: all 8 emotions shown with their picture and word together, meant to be posted and taught from before the first match, not cut apart
• A Matching Mat with 8 open slots — no picture or word already placed — where a student decides which picture and which word go together and places both
• 8 picture-only cards, cut apart, with no word printed under any of them — that is what turns matching into a real identification task instead of reading a label
• 8 word-only cards, cut apart, used with either the color or the ink-saver picture cards
• A Self-Check Answer Key: all 8 correct pairs shown small in one place, so a match can be checked without an adult
• Two desk-size Matching Mats on one sheet, for a folder or a second setting
• 8 blank cards, the same size as both decks, for any emotion the printed eight do not cover
• Every picture card and the chart twice: a full-color set and a black-and-white ink-saver set for the photocopier (the word cards print the same in either set, so only one word-card page is needed)
• A how-to page: before the first round, the three moves every time, how much support to offer, what to do when a pair doesn't match, when an emotion is missing, writing down what changes
• A Matching Practice Log (16 rows: date, emotion matched, how matched, notes)
• A weekly roll-up (8 weeks) with a pairs-matched-independently-per-week graph
• A filled example — an invented student, one day on the log and three weeks on the roll-up, every number re-counted from its own row
• A family page with a six-pair home matching set (picture cards and word cards to cut and mix)
• A hand-off page so a paraprofessional or another classroom runs the same mat and cards the same way
• A phrase bank: 24 lines in 6 groups (spoken lines for the mat, written starters for the log, the roll-up and the note home)
• A storage and binder label sheet
• Start Here, a contents page with page thumbnails, and a "what's next" back page

A matching and identification tool, not a self-report chart. The picture cards carry no word and the word cards carry no picture, so a student has to identify which one goes with which — then check the work with the answer key, log how independently it happened, and turn that into a line on a page a case manager can bring to a meeting.

The Two Card Decks

• Picture cards (8) — happy, sad, angry, scared, calm, surprised, tired, silly: a picture only, no word printed on the card
• Word cards (8) — the same 8 words, printed only, no picture on the card
• Mix the two decks and match each picture to its word; the self-check answer key confirms the pairing without giving away the answer in advance

Every picture was chosen to be named in one word by a young child, in color AND in the black-and-white set; a word that failed in either set was left out.

The Mat

• Matching Mat — 8 open slots, no picture or word already placed. A student decides which one goes with which and places both cards in the same slot.
• Two desk-size Matching Mats — two smaller mats on one sheet, cut apart, for a folder or a second student.

This Is Not The Feelings Chart And Check-In Cards Check-In Board

Feelings Chart and Check-In Cards is a self-report tool: a student looks at how they feel right now and places the one card that already prints its own word, to answer "which one feels like you right now." This file asks a different question — "which word goes with this picture?" — and answers it with two separate, unlabeled decks, an open matching mat, and a self-check answer key that the check-in board does not have. If you are looking for a check-in tool for naming a feeling in the moment, Feelings Chart and Check-In Cards is that product; this one is for practicing the match itself.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

It is a fillable PDF: type into the mat's slots, the log, the roll-up, the family page, the hand-off page and the blank cards, or print and use a pen. The chart and card pages print on cardstock or plain paper; the cards cut along dashed lines. It works offline with no account or subscription. It is NOT an editable online slideshow or word-processor document.

It is a way for a student to practice matching a picture to its word, and for that practice to be written down. It is not a behavior plan, a clinical finding, a screening tool or a program of any kind, and it promises no outcome. It carries no prompt hierarchy, fading schedule or mastery rule; it does not say why a pair was chosen or what to do about it — how the mat is used with a student, and for how long, is what your team's plan says. The goal line and the criterion field are blanks for your district's own wording and your team's own number. The log counts one thing: whether a pair was matched, and how much support it needed.

Who This Is For

Special education teachers and paraprofessionals building emotion-word identification with early, pre-reading or emerging-language students, case managers who need that practice to show up as data, and the families who get the home page sent home.

More In The Collection

Part of the Visual Supports Collection, alongside Feelings Chart and Check-In Cards, Size of the Problem Visual Sorting Board Editable, and Manners and Polite Language Cue Cards; more picture-card sets are being added to the collection regularly.

Pictures (color pages): Noto Emoji by Google, Apache License 2.0. Pictures (ink-saver pages): Fluent Emoji, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, MIT License.