Free Feelings Printables for a Montessori-Inspired Emotions and Feelings Unit

I’ve been wanting to have an emotions and feelings unit for a long time, and we’re finally having one! Check out the links to free feelings printables used to prepare hands-on activities and a new Montessori-inspired feelings pack for our newsletter subscribers’ resource library!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).’

Montessori Shelves with Emotions and Feelings Themed Activities

You’ll find Montessori-inspired feelings numbers, letters, and and more (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber) Note: The Montessori-inspired feelings pack isn’t designed as a complete feelings unit but as supplemental materials. I design the packs using realistic images that I’ve often looked for when preparing a unit study (such as font cards and phonogram cards featuring the letter and phonogram related to the theme and math cards with realistic images that fit the theme and can be adapted for math activities at a variety of levels.)

You could mix your emotions and feelings themed activities among your shelves according to curriculum area. Or you could have a special emotions and feelings themed area something like the one pictured. My shelves at the beginning of our unit have a mixture of skill levels. Many of the activities can be adapted for a variety of levels. Many of these are designed for early elementary as well as preschoolers. If you’re a homeschooler, just choose the activities that work for your child’s interests and ability levels. If you don’t have room for all the activities you’d like to do, simply rotate them.

Montessori Shelves with Emotions and Feelings Themed Activities and a Mary Cassatt Print

Notice the framed art print Child in a Straw Hat (circa 1886) by Mary Cassatt. It’s a free download from Wikiart.

For our monthly featured art print, I purchased a Li’l DAVINCI art frame that opens in the front for easily changing a free art masterpiece printable or vintage illustration to fit with the month’s theme. The frame can be switched from horizontal to vertical without changing the hanger, which is perfect!

If you’re wondering about the rugs and rug box I use, both the rugs and wooden rug holder are from Montessori Services. I love the Montessori Services rugs and rug holder! I used to use an umbrella stand something like these. I loved that for 1-3 rugs, but I needed something different when I had more grandchildren and some projects that needed more than one rug.

Favorite Shelves, Trays, Baskets, and More for Montessori Homeschoolers

I often get asked about the trays, baskets, etc., that I use, so I published a post with many of the items. You can find lots of helpful resources here. They’re not all essential, so don’t feel you need to have everything. Just choose what’s best for your budget and your unique family’s needs. You’ll find more ideas in the Living Montessori Now Amazon shop

Emotions and Feelings Books for Kids

Even though I have books on shelves, I’m now keeping many of my themed books in a forward-facing display after placing a plant where the themed book basket was before. My seasonal books are now in that book basket.

For toddlers and preschoolers, about ¾ of the books I use are typically Montessori friendly (focusing on reality without smiling or talking animals or smiling or talking vehicles).

For our feelings unit, I have more books with fantasy or unrealistic images than I usually do. Because emotions and feelings are abstract concepts, many of the books are perfect for preschoolers who understand the difference between fantasy and reality or for early elementary on up. These books are great for inspiring discussions with a variety of ages!

Books for an Emotions and Feelings Unit

Top Shelf of Main Themed Shelf:

The Big Feelings Book for Children has some great mindfulness activities for managing big emotions.
My Body Sends a Signal is a very helpful book f0r children because it teaches about both emotions and feelings.
Ultimate Bodypedia (open book on easel) It’s a great body book, but it doesn’t have much about emotions and feelings.
Breathing Makes It Better: A Book for Sad Days, Mad Days, Glad Days, and All the Feelings In-Between and A Little SPOT of Emotion 8 Plush Toys with Feelings Book Box Set are on the shelf to the right of the main themed shelf

Top Shelf of Forward -Facing Display:

Breathing Is My Superpower: Mindfulness Book for Kids to Feel Calm and Peaceful
Find Your Calm: A Mindful Approach To Relieve Anxiety And Grow Your Bravery has some great tips for helping children feel calm in a variety of new and frightening situations. ⁠⁠
B is for Breathe: The ABCs of Coping with Fussy and Frustrating Feelings (Read my review and get ideas for using the book here.)

2nd Shelf:

3rd Shelf:

Feelings Ninja (My grandkids love the whole Ninja Life Hacks series!)
Angry Ninja: A Children’s Book About Fighting and Managing Anger
A Little Spot of Anger: A Story About Managing BIG Emotions (The Little Spot series is another series my grandkids love.)

4th Shelf:

Bottom Shelf

Breathe with me: using breath to feel strong, calm, and happy is recommended for ages 4-8, but it’s actually great for kids and adults! This book has ideas for breathing exercises to help with various emotions and events.
Daniel’s Little Songs for Big Feelings (More than 50 strategy song lyrics, helpful tips for parents and caregivers, and more!). I think this is a fabulous book with so many great songs for social-emotional learning for kids and helpful hints for grown-ups. The kids’ part is recommended for ages 3-7. I have an 8-part series at my BitsofPositivity.com blog about the book.
Daniel Feels Left Out (My grandson loves to read this series.)

You can see lots of the books I’ve used and emotions and feelings books as they’re published here.

The Big Feelings Book for Children with “Today, I Feel” Activity

The Big Feelings Book for Children along with Today, I Feel Activity

The Big Feelings Book for Children has some great mindfulness activities for managing big emotions.

Free Printable: Daily Emotions Activity from Totschooling

I simply added Velcro dots to the backs of the images and the squares on each page for easily changing the dots. There’s a girl’s page below the boy’s page, although I kept the girls’ faces in a small bowl in case the girls wanted to dress in the boy’s outfit.

My Body Sends a Signal Book with Emotions Cards and Feelings Cards

My Body Sends a Signal is a very helpful book f0r children because it teaches about both emotions and feelings. The cards in the box aren’t free, but they’re included in the book. They’re different from most feelings cards because they include cards describing the bodily sensations to match with the specific feelings.

Bilingual Emotion Cards with Emotion Pages in Ultimate Bodypedia and Additional Resources in the Background

Free Printable: Bilingual Emotion Cards by Learning to DIY For at Teachers Pay Teachers. I love having Spanish and English cards with photographs to make it easier for young children to become familiar with feeling words in both languages.

The open book on the easel is Ultimate Bodypedia. It’s a great body book, but it doesn’t have much about emotions and feelings.

In the background is the book Breathing Makes It Better: A Book for Sad Days, Mad Days, Glad Days, and All the Feelings In-Between and a surprise that I can’t share until tomorrow morning. Watch for my newsletter! (I’ll share it here, too.)

I Can Make Silence Cards with Breathing Makes It Better Book

Update: The surprise is our brand new I Can Make Silence Posters or Cards in Print or Cursive! They’re two separate packs (identical except for print vs. cursive). Each pack is $6.

I used plate holders for the I Can Make Silence cards: one section for photos of children doing yoga postures or meditating, one section for photos of children making silence in a variety of ways in nature, one section of beautiful nature images, and one section of watercolor images of children doing yoga poses or meditating.

A Little Spot of Feelings with How are you feeling today? sign and Little Spot of Feelings Plush Toys

You can see A Little SPOT of Emotion 8 Plush Toys with Feelings Book Box Set in the background. It isn’t a Montessori-style activity, but it’s super cute and great for kids who love the SPOT books. So far only my 4-year-old grandson, Caleb, and his parents have seen the activities I set up. Even though they each saw the shelves at slightly different times, the first thing Chrissy, Tom, and Caleb noticed was the SPOT plush toys! I’m sure my granddaughters will be absolutely in love with them! Note: The “How are you feeling today?” sign is from a free printable: Feelings Chart – Daily Mental Health by Kinder Cajun at Teachers Pay Teachers.

Update: My granddaughters both LOVE the SPOT plush toys! Every day they visited in the two weeks since the SPOTS were on the shelf, they chose a SPOT to represent their feelings. Then they got out all the SPOTS, and played a variety of games with them.

Salt Writing Tray and Movable Alphabet for Emotions and Feelings Unit

Free Printables: “E” for Excited for salt writing tray (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

You’ll see a variety of simple letter writing trays in my previous unit study posts. I often used the wooden tray from the Melissa & Doug Lace and Trace Shapes. You can use whatever tray or container work best for you, though.

The sandpaper letters I use are available in print or cursive.

I typically now use this lovely spelling/alphabet tray from FamilyTreeWW on Etsy. I like it for writing more than one letter or spelling words.

If you would like help with introducing phonetic sounds, introducing objects with sounds, or beginning phonics in general, check out my DIY Beginning Montessori Phonics with Preschoolers.

Work with ai Phonogram in Afraid and Long A Word Sorting

Free Printables: “Ai” in afraid (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

Free Printable:“ai” Sound with Letters from MontessoriSoul (made into a booklet)

Free Printable:I Spy: Long A Vowel Team (AI, AY, A_E, A) Worksheets & Word Sort Activities by The Clever Chipmunk at Teachers Pay Teachers. This isn’t the first time we’ve focused on “ai” and other long a words. So I added the word sorting activity.

These activities are very simple to prepare, but they help children remember the phonogram when it’s paired with the unit’s theme. I have a post and video on how to introduce words starting with phonograms, even with very young children (although I don’t introduce phonograms to very young children except in a word like “shark” that can’t be explained as starting with /s/).

Happy Friends Addition Activity

Free Printable: happy numbers and symbols (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

I love the little multicultural kid stickers I used. Previously, I stuck them on 12 mm wood circles, and I’m using them again. I used these during our friendship unit for an addition activity with a dice with 2 sets of number cards 1-6, 1 set of number cards 7-12, and the addition equation symbols. Now I’m using them with the 1-5 spinner from our subscriber freebie pack, 2 sets of number cards 1-5, and 1 set of number cards 6-10. I like to make up a story problem, such as about 4 happy friends playing who are joined by 4 more happy friends. Now there are 8 happy friends altogether. At the end, I like to put the objects all together for the total.

Of course, you can use these cards for simple counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, or greater than, and less than. You can use whatever type of counters you prefer.

Feelings Scale and Poster Activity

Free Printable: Feelings Scales: Free SEL Activity to Help Kids Identify Emotions by Wholehearted School Counseling at Teachers Pay Teachers

Free Printable: Social Emotional Learning Poster: Feelings Check-In & Coping Tools by Wholehearted School Counseling at Teachers Pay Teachers

This is such an inviting activity! It was very simple to assessble using the printable cards, pipecleaners, a hole punch, and pony beads.

I printed out the posters in half size because of my limited space. (Note: The printables are nice and clear … just not the letters in my photo.)

Feelings Spelling and Cursive Activity

Free Printable: Feelings Cards (made into a booklet) from Kindergarten Worksheets and Games

Free Printables: Suprised alphabet cards with (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

I used a little chalkboard to bring attention to the activity and our cursive writing board to give practice in cursive.

Free Feelings Pack

Montessori-Inspired Feelings Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Bead Bar Work, Hands-on Math Operations, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, DIY Movable Alphabet, and Creative Writing (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber).

More Social-Emotional Learning Resources

If you’d like ideas for calendar-based themes throughout October and November, see my October Themed Activities for Kids and November Themed Activities for Kids.

Have fun studying emotions and feelings!

Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy!

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