The EQJOY game supports children’s emotional intelligence (EQ) development through the power of play
The game is a card game, with an accompanying online Emotion Explorer, for children aged 7 to 11. Hopefully older children and adults also have fun developing their EQ with this game!
There are three basic ways to play the game, but feel free to use your imagination to come up with your own ways to have fun with these cards.
1. Playing for fun
What you need:
The Emotion Cards, and a pen and paper for drawing. The 3 Prompt Cards can be used as support for the expression of the emotion.How to play:
The players first decide to play the game either as:-
- a free-choice, where each player can, at each turn, choose to express the emotion either by miming, drawing, describing, or non-verbal sounds.
- a pre-choice, where the players agree to play this time by only one of the options of miming, drawing, describing, or non-verbal sounds.
2. Playing to win
A game for 4 or more players
What you need:
The Emotion Cards, a timing device and somewhere to keep score, and a pen and paper for drawing. The 3 Prompt Cards can be used as support for the expression of the emotion.
How to play:
The players first decide to play the game either as
- a free-choice, where each player can, at each turn, choose to express the emotion either by miming, drawing, describing, or non-verbal sounds.
- a pre-choice, where the players agree to play this time by only one of the options of miming, drawing, describing, or non-verbal sounds.
The players form two or more teams and decide in advance how many rounds to play, which team begins, and who of each team will be the first to pick a card.
The players take turns to randomly pick a card from the deck, without showing the card to the others. When the player touches the card, the timer starts. The player who picked up the card expresses the emotion on the card. Be careful not to mention the emotion!
The player’s team member(s) have a maximum of 30 seconds to guess the emotion being expressed. You are free to decide whether the guessed emotion word needs to be in the exact form (anger, not angry) and if synonyms (mad, furious) of the word are okay.
Scoring and winning:
If the team member(s) guess the emotion correctly within 30 seconds, the team gets 30 points. For each wrong guess, there is a 5-point penalty. If the name of the emotion on the card is accidentally mentioned by the player who expresses it, the turn goes to the next team.
After each turn, the points are added up. The team with the highest score after the agreed number of rounds wins.
3. Playing to educate
A game for 1 or more players, plus an adult.
What you need:
The Emotion Cards, the Prompt Cards, and access to the online Emotion Explorer. The 3 Prompt Cards can be used as support for the expression of the emotion, or as a base for discussing the emotion.
How to play the game:
The players and the adult first decide to play the game either as
- a free-choice, where each player can, at each turn, choose to express the emotion either by miming, drawing, describing, or non-verbal sounds.
- a pre-choice, where the players agree to play this time by only one of the options of miming, drawing, describing, or non-verbal sounds.
The player(s) take turns to randomly pick a card from the deck, without showing the card to the others. The player who picked up the card expresses the emotion on the card. Be careful not to mention the emotion!
The other player(s) or in the case of one player, the adult, try to guess the emotion being expressed. You are free to decide whether the guessed emotion word needs to be in the exact form (anger, not angry) and if synonyms (mad, furious) of the word are okay.
When the right emotion is guessed, or after some time of trying to guess, the adult uses the Prompt Cards or/and Emotion Explorer to discuss the emotion.
When the adult feels the player(s) are ready, then the next card is picked up and the process repeated.
The Explorer is for both you and your child, a tool to explore the emotions together and build your child’s emotional intelligence (EQ) skills.
The Explorer can be used in the “playing to educate” -game, or whenever you need some information or advice relating to emotions, or if you run short of nice activities to do. In the Explorer you will find all kinds of fun and helpful short stories, activities, music and such, that relate to a wide range of emotions.
Not all content will speak to you or your child, as we are all different. Maybe a poem we interpret as relating to “happiness” means something else for you and your child. That is alright, and it can be a great way to get talking about how people differ.
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