Kids have always loved to play the popular card game, Go Fish. At Franklin Learning Systems, we've developed our own version of Go Fish to help improve social and emotional skills in the following areas: anger, friendship, feelings, character, responsibility, and conflict.

Play-2-Learn® Go Fish: Fishing for Feelings™ teaches the skills needed to successfully deal with feelings, recognize feelings in others, and identify appropriate feelings. Players practice talking about their feelings in an open-ended and non-threatening way.

The game plays like classic Go Fish. There are two decks of 50 cards in each game – one for grades K-2 and the other for grades 3-5. It differs from classic go fish in that players must answer a question before they can accept a requested card. Instead of the usual number and picture cards, the cards have fun pictures of fish and fish names. For example, a player may ask, "Do you have any Henry Herrings?"  If the player receives a Henry Herring card, the player reads the question on the card aloud and answers it. All questions are open ended. If the player did not have any Henry Herrings, the player would say, "go fish," and then the first player would take a card from the "ocean" (extra cards in the center of the table). A rules sheet and facilitator guidelines are included.

Grades: K – 5

• Time required:  about 20 minutes
• Players: 2 – 5

Learning Objectives
Players will understand:
1. how to recognize their own feelings;
2. how to express feelings verbally in a mature way;
3. how to identify feelings in others; and
4. how to handle difficult situations that involve strong or negative feelings.