When you’re scared, your legs turn to jelly. When you’re angry, you’re about to explode like a volcano. When you’re sad, your eyes fill with tears.

Emotions pass through the body first, long before we find the words for them. Quina Animalada d’Emocions! is a card game that helps children connect what they feel physically with the emotion behind it.

The Challenge

The Primary Care Team at CAP Igualada Nord had been working on emotional education in the classroom using very simple drawings and a limited range of sensations.

They wanted to go further: an analogue card game that would allow children aged 6 and up to identify the nine basic emotions and the bodily sensations that come with them. Something self-contained, easy to bring into any classroom, and playable as a group without an adult to guide it.

The Solution

The Concept

Children understand the body before they understand words. Learning to say “I’m angry” comes more easily when you can first recognise that you feel like you’re about to explode like a volcano. Each sensation card describes a physical experience and illustrates it with everyday visual elements. Players have to identify which element matches that sensation and which emotions are tied to it.

Captura de pantalla 2026-06-08 a les 14.31.08

Gameplay

Each player chooses an animal character and places their five cards face up on the colourless side. On their turn, the active player reads a sensation phrase out loud without revealing the card’s element, and the others have to guess which of the available elements it matches. Whoever gets it right can flip one of their character’s cards and gradually bring it to life with colour.

Alongside the standard game, there are three additional modes: competitive group mode; cooperative mode, where everyone works together to colour a single character and every correct guess becomes an opportunity to talk about when they’ve felt that way, and reverse mode, for more advanced players, where the element is shown and players must name the sensation and the emotions linked to it.

The Characters

Nico, the bespectacled dog who had already starred in the CAP’s healthy habits app, Nico, el doctor pelut, is back with a group of friends: Hipo, Coco, Mat, Kala, and Pan. Each animal has its own personality and its own colour.

Art and Narrative

The illustrations are simple, charming, and designed with children in mind: bright colours, rounded shapes, soft textures. Each emotion has its own colour, but this isn’t an arbitrary choice, it’s a deliberate reflection on what each feeling stirs in us. The card backs and box design create a cohesive visual world that children recognise from the very first moment.

Impact

The game reached the reference schools of CAP Igualada Nord in November 2025. Teachers and families alike have responded with great enthusiasm, and the Consorci Sanitari de l’Anoia is already keen to take it further. A full impact assessment will follow at the end of the school year.