Identifying Emotions Worksheets – Finish the Faces

These Finish the Faces identify emotions worksheets give children a hands-on way to practice recognizing facial expressions while drawing the missing mouth on each face. The printable is free, and you can download it at the bottom of this post.

What’s Included in These Identify Emotions Worksheets

This free PDF includes two printable pages. Both pages share the same format: children are shown a row of reference faces at the top of the page, each labeled with an emotion, and then a collection of incomplete faces below. Children look at the eyes, eyebrows, and other facial features on each incomplete face, identify the emotion being shown, and then draw the matching mouth.

Page one features four emotions in the reference key: happy, sad, angry, and anxious. Page two offers a more expanded reference key with nine emotions, including happy, sad, angry, tired, frustrated, silly, sick, anxious, and confused. The second page also includes more practice faces, making it a natural progression for children who are ready for a greater challenge.

Identify Emotions Worksheet Skills This Activity Supports

These worksheets target a meaningful mix of social-emotional and motor skills:

• Visual discrimination — noticing subtle differences in facial features to determine which emotion is shown
• Visual perceptual skills — interpreting and processing visual information to match faces to their emotion labels
• Visual scanning — scanning the reference key and comparing it to the incomplete faces on the page
• Fine motor skills — using a pencil to draw controlled curved and straight lines to form a mouth
• Eye-hand coordination — translating visual information into accurate pencil movements
• Emotional intelligence — learning to read and interpret facial expressions as emotional cues

Building the ability to read facial expressions supports children’s social communication and self-regulation. When children can recognize what an emotion looks like on someone else’s face, they are developing the foundational skills needed for empathy, conversation, and understanding their own feelings. These skills connect directly to classroom participation and daily social interactions.

How to Use This Identify Emotions Worksheet Activity

These worksheets are low prep and easy to incorporate across settings:

• Occupational therapy sessions as a visual perceptual and fine motor warm-up
• Classroom use for social-emotional learning discussions, fine motor centers, or early finishers
• School counseling sessions to open conversations about feelings and facial expressions
• Home use for a quick, engaging pencil activity that sparks discussion about emotions
• Self-talk and emotions check-in discussions before or after completing the page

Tips and Variations

For younger children or those newer to emotion recognition, spend a moment looking at the reference key together before they begin drawing. Talk about what makes each face look the way it does, pointing out the shape of the eyebrows and the direction the mouth curves.

To add a challenge, encourage children to complete the mouths slowly and with deliberate pencil control, focusing on smooth curves. You can also cover the reference key after the first round and see if children can recall each emotion from memory before drawing.

Laminating the pages and using dry-erase markers allows for repeated use, which is especially helpful for children who benefit from extra practice. This also makes the sheets easy to reuse in small group therapy sessions.

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