Helping students talk about their feelings is an essential part of building real-world communication skills in French. The French Chat Mat: Emotions gives learners the vocabulary, sentence starters, and visual cues they need to describe how they feel, ask others about their emotions, and participate in simple interpersonal conversations—all in French.

Clear, student-friendly language makes this chat mat perfect for novices while still offering depth for more advanced learners.

Why Use an Emotions Chat Mat?

Emotions vocabulary is incredibly useful in the classroom and beyond. This theme helps learners:

• Express how they feel throughout the day
• Ask classmates simple questions
• Practice high-frequency structures like être, avoir, and se sentir
  
• Build empathy through communication
• Stay in the target language during routines, check-ins, and conversations

Because emotions tie directly to students’ daily lives, they encourage meaningful, authentic interaction.

What’s Included in the French Emotions Chat Mat?

A strong emotions chat mat might include:

Common Emotions in French

• heureux / heureuse
• triste
• fatigué(e)
• stressé(e)
• excité(e)
• calme
• fâché(e)
• inquiet / inquiète
• surpris(e)
• frustré(e)

Useful Verbs & Phrases

• Je suis…
• Je me sens…
• Aujourd’hui, je suis…
• Je me sens parce que…
• Comment tu te sens ?
• Ça va ? / Ça ne va pas ?

High-Utility Sentence Starters

• En ce moment, je me sens…
• Quand je suis…, je…
• Je suis souvent… à l’école.
• Je deviens… quand…
• Je me sens mieux quand…

Support Vocabulary

• les raisons (la fatigue, les devoirs, les amis, les sports, etc.)
• les intensités (un peu, très, vraiment, trop…)
• les expressions faciales

Visual Icons

Emotion faces or emoji-style illustrations help students understand and choose the right words quickly.

Classroom Activities Using This Chat Mat

Here are some engaging ways to use it:

1. Daily Check-In

Students share how they feel at the start or end of class using sentence starters from the mat.

2. Emotion Role-Play

Students act out an emotion while their partner guesses and describes it in French.

3. What Makes You Feel…?

Students complete prompts such as:
“Je me sens calme quand…” or
“Je suis frustré(e) quand…”

4. Emotion Thermometer

Students rate the intensity of an emotion and describe why they feel that way.

5. Cultural Connections

Discuss how emotions are expressed differently across francophone cultures.

A Powerful Tool for Everyday Communication

The French Chat Mat: Emotions helps learners use French in meaningful, personal ways. It supports daily routines, partner conversations, and interpersonal tasks, all while building students’ confidence in expressing themselves.

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