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Feelings Thermometer

Explore emotions and how actions affect others’ feelings.

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You’ll need

  • Tokens (for example, coins, beads or stickers)
Guidance for volunteers (Healthy Relationships research)
PDF – 61.7KB
Download Guidance for volunteers (Healthy Relationships research)
Feelings Thermometer
PDF – 1.2MB
Download Feelings Thermometer

Before you begin

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
  • Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help.

Healthy Relationships research

This activity is part of our Healthy Relationships research. Please read the attached guidance for volunteers before running the activity.

Make sure you've got consent from the parents or carers of all young people taking part, using the Participant Information Sheet and Consent Form you’ve been given.

For each statement, you'll need to keep note of the group's answers. When you've completed the activity, please share your feedback and your group’s responses using this form.

Submit your feedback and group's responses

Planning and setting up this activity

  • For this activity, you’ll need to print or draw copies of the Feelings Thermometer. It’s up to you whether you have one for each young person, one per group, or a single one for the whole group. Just make sure it’s big enough for how you plan to use it, as adding lots of tokens can make parts of the image hard to see. 
  • You’ll also need to have the list of statements to hand, and something to take notes with.
  • Some parts of this activity may trigger emotions or personal experiences for young people. It’s important to be aware that discussions about friendships and relationships can sometimes bring up feelings of sadness, frustration, or discomfort.
  • That’s why it’s important to create a supportive space where everyone feels comfortable and to keep an eye on how each young person is coping. If you have a concern about a young person, always follow the Safeguarding Code of Conduct (Yellow Card) and report it to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.

Running this activity

  1. Gather everyone together and ask if they can name as many types of feelings as they can. 
  2. Ask what they think the feelings mean and if they can give examples of things that might make them feel that way. 
  3. Explain that today they’ll be looking more into how people feel and how people might make them feel. 
  4. Let the group know that you’ll read out a statement, and they should place their token on the part of the thermometer where they think it fits, from happy to sad and angry. 
  5. Make sure everyone feels safe to share their thoughts and remind them that it’s okay to have different opinions. 
  6. When everyone is ready, read each statement aloud. 
    1. Your friend shares a snack with you 
    2. Someone asks if you’re OK when you look sad. 
    3. Your friend says you can’t play because you’re ‘too slow.’ 
    4. You’re asked to keep a secret that makes you feel worried. 
    5. You say no to a hug, but the other person walks away looking hurt. 
    6. You’re left out of a group on purpose. 
    7. Someone laughs when you make a mistake. 
    8. You help someone who dropped their books. 
  7. Have a look at where the tokens were placed. Is anything surprising to anyone? Were there any differences in people's answers? Remember to keep everything simple and upbeat, there are no wrong answers, just good thinking and sharing.
  8. Encourage discussion after each statement. You could ask: 
    • How would that make someone feel?   
    • What could we do instead?   
    • Have you ever seen someone be a good friend like that?

Reflection

This Feelings Thermometer activity helped you explore how people might feel in different situations and understand that everyone experiences emotions differently. By placing tokens on the thermometer and discussing each scenario, you practised empathy and thought about how actions can affect others’ feelings.

Think about the activity and your choices. What did you find easy? What was challenging? Did anything surprise you about how others responded to the scenarios? Do you think this activity will help you understand other people’s feelings better, and if so, how?

By reflecting on feelings and how people react, you can think about how to be considerate, include others, and support your friends in everyday life. 

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

You must run your activities in line with the Safeguarding Code of Conduct for Adults (Yellow Card) and report any concerns to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.

  • To make this activity easier, you could use fewer scenarios, so the group can focus on each one more thoroughly. You could offer choices verbally rather than having young people place tokens on the thermometer, which might help younger participants engage without feeling overwhelmed.
  • To make this activity harder, you could ask young people to suggest additional scenarios themselves, encouraging them to think creatively about different situations and how people might feel. This adds complexity and encourages deeper discussion.
  • You could print or write out each statement so people can read it as well as hear it. You could use tactile tokens or textured markers on the thermometer, and describe the thermometer verbally.
  • Give clear, simple instructions and repeat them as needed. You could break the activity into smaller steps or use shorter scenarios.
  • Instead of adding a token, people could share their thoughts in different ways, such as verbally or pointing.
  • Keep language simple, clear, and concrete, and check in regularly to ensure everyone understands and feels included. 

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.