Get started with Reflect Emotion Board
Applies ToMicrosoft Teams Microsoft Teams for Education

The Emotion Board is a Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) activity your students will love. It is a physical board that adapts Reflect for classrooms with young students or without student devices.

Once the board is set up, students can share how they feel during a lesson, every morning, or at the end of each day by placing their card in the emotional category they relate to. When students are done, capture their responses using the Reflect app on your mobile device to collect responses and gain valuable insights into their well-being.

Note: Emotion Board is currently available for users who use Microsoft Teams in English. It will soon be available in the Reflect web application, and support will be added for additional languages.

Build an emotion board in your classroom

An educator printing the board kit, cutting the different cards and pasting them on a board or wall in a classroom.

  1. Download the board kit from Reflect app in your class team.

    Open the Teams app on your desktop, navigate to the class where you want to set up the board, click on Reflect, and select Reflect emotion board tile on the right panel.Select Reflect emotion board tile in Reflect app Next, click on Download emotion board kit to access the printable board kit.Download emotion board kit

  2. Print the emotion and animal pages.

    Note: Emotion Board can be printed in color or grayscale.

  3. Cut the cards along the marked lines.

  4. Arrange the emotion cards on a board or wall

    Note: Emotion Board can be set up in a landscape or portrait style, but Feelings Monster cards must be in straight lines and in order from A-F.  Emotion Board in a landscape and portrait style

  5. The emotion board is all set up!

Assign a card to each of your students

An educator places Velcro on the back of an animal card, then reviews a phone screen with animal icons assigned to students, and finally hands out animal cards to the students.​​​​

  1. Prepare the animal cards by using Velcro, reusable tape, magnets, etc.

  2. Review and assign the animal images to your students. Open Reflect in your class team, select Reflect emotion board tile on the right panel, and review the student identification chart.student identification chart for the Emotion Board

    Tip: You can reshuffle the animal cards if students need a refresh or assign cards individually by selecting any animal card and choosing from the drop down.

  3. Hand an animal card to each student

  4. Your students are ready to share their emotions!

Students share their emotions

Students placing cards on a board in a classroom.

  1. Have students place their assigned cards on the board to reflect how they feel.

  2. The emotion board is ready to be scanned.

Scan the board with your device to gain insights

An educator presses the button to take a picture on a phone, captures an image of the board, and reviews the results on the mobile phone.

Once students have placed their cards to the Reflect board, you can collect their responses in the Reflect app to monitor their emotions over time. 

1. Navigate to Reflect app in your device to collect responses.

  • Open the Teams app on your mobile device.

  • Navigate to the class where you've set up an emotion board.

  • From the General channel, select More then select Reflect.

  • Tap the + icon, then select New emotion board scan.

Navigate to Reflect app in your device to collect responses.

2. Capture a clear picture of the board, ensure card visibility.

  • Select Camera to create a new image.

  • Select Photo library to upload an existing image.

Important: 

  • For best results, ensure the board is well-lit, the photo is in-focus, and all emotion cards are visible. 

  • We analyze the text on the cards, so please ensure that all the texts are visible (including the letters and emotions on the Feelings Monster cards, as well as the animals and their adjectives).

  • Trim the image to remove anything but the emotion board, then select Confirm.

  • Your image will be modified to upload quickly, it might be a little ugly, but that's ok! Make sure it still includes all cards, then select Done.

Capture a clear picture of the board, ensure card visibility

3. Confirm the scanning results.

  • When the app has analyzed the scan, review the responses for accuracy.

  • If the app has misread any of the students' responses, correct them by selecting the response and choosing from the dropdown menu.

  • Select Confirm. You will be able to review the results of your check-in.

Confirm the scanning results

4. Explore trends and gain insights.

Now the data is collected in Reflect, and you can see it alongside the students' names, start a chat with them, and view well-being trends over time to support them.

View responses after scanning the Emotion Board

Downloadable guides

View Emotion Board quick guide (PDF)

Learn more

Microsoft Reflect website

Get started with Reflect in Teams

View Reflect data in Insights

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