Personal & Social Development Emotional Literacyusually ages 5–7

Expressing Feelings with Words

Express their own feelings appropriately using words rather than actions — saying 'I feel angry because...' instead of hitting, shouting, or withdrawing

How to tell they’ve got it

Tick these off as you see them — no test required.

Use an 'I feel ___ when ___' statement during a disagreement
Choose to tell an adult how they feel instead of acting out physically
Describe their feelings about a difficult situation using at least two emotion words

🖨 Print this page to keep the checklist — it prints beautifully.

Try this together

When your child is frustrated — say a sibling takes their toy — do they use words to say how they feel rather than snatching it back or crying?

Where this sits on the map

Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.

Builds on

Simple Calming Strategiesages 5–7Expressing feelings in words benefits from calming down first

Triggers and Causes of Feelingsages 5–7Expressing feelings in words benefits from understanding triggers

Expressing Feelings with Wordsthis skill · ages 5–7

Unlocks

Hidden and Masked Feelingsages 7–9Recognising masked feelings builds on expressing own feelings appropriately

Building Writing Staminaages 6–7Writing about real events draws on the ability to put feelings into words — the SEL skill of expressing emotions verbally before encoding them in written form

Resolving Disagreements with Friendsages 7–9Resolving disagreements benefits from expressing feelings in words

solid = must come firstdashed = helps

Curriculum alignment

Candidate matches to official curriculum codes — machine-suggested, unreviewed (v0.1).

Show candidate curriculum codes · 1 ACARA · 3 VIC

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

AC9HP4P06low confidenceYear 3–4 · Personal, social and community health

explain how and why emotional responses can vary and practise strategies to manage their emotions

Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only

VC2HPFP04low confidenceHealth and Physical Education · Foundation · Personal, Social and Community Health – Health Education strand

VC2HP4P06low confidenceHealth and Physical Education · Levels 3 and 4 · Personal, Social and Community Health – Health Education strand

VC2HP2P04low confidenceHealth and Physical Education · Levels 1 and 2 · Personal, Social and Community Health – Health Education strand

These are candidate alignments generated by semantic matching — machine-suggested and unreviewed (v0.1), not official or verified mappings. For official curriculum content see australiancurriculum.edu.au, curriculum.nsw.edu.au and f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Don’t rely on them for registration or compliance purposes.

Nearby on the map

Feelings Change and Differages 5–7 Naming Basic Emotionsages 5–7 Triggers and Causes of Feelingsages 5–7 Emotion Vocabularyages 7–9

All Emotional Literacy skills →