Inside Out Discussion Questions: Helping Kids Learn About Their Emotions

I’ve used Disney’s movie Inside Out for the basis of my feelings curriculum as I worked with kids as a therapeutic-day treatment counselor in a middle school and an elementary school. After learning to identify and scale emotions, we watch the movie as part of an end-of-year party and discuss the emotions portrayed in the movie with what we had learned all year. I am always surprised by what my clients pick up on when we go through my Inside Out Discussion Questions, and I hear their different interpretations of the movie.

Because my adolescent clients usually don’t want to sit and answer questions, I cut out the questions and have everyone pull a question from the jar and answer it. I’ve found my clients more likely to answer a question that they read themselves. A printable of the questions can be found in the Resource Library for subscribers to my newsletter (Sign up at the bottom of this post!).

Inside Out Discussion Questions

1. 1. What emotion do you feel most often?
   2. Have you ever gone through a big transition like Riley? (Even just transitioning from elementary to middle school?)
   3. Can you name a “core memory?” Why does that memory stick out to you? What emotion do you associate with that memory? (everyone answers)
   4. Why did the core memory change when sadness touched it?
   5. What personality islands do you have?
   6. Riley feels pressure to be happy or “joyful” and hides her true feelings from her parents. Have you ever felt pressured to act happy when you weren’t?
   7. Joy eventually realized the importance of Sadness. Why do you feel that other emotions are important?
   8. What emotions do you feel are easy to express?
   9. Are some emotions bad?
   10. What are some ways you cope with sadness? Anger? Fear? Disgust? (Everyone give one coping skill for one emotion)
   11. When Riley gets angry at the dinner table, did that help her situation? How could she have expressed her emotions to her parents in a helpful way?

Download a printable version of my Inside Out Discussion questions by joining the Unseen Footprints newsletter (green box at the bottom of this page) and gaining access to the resource library! Also, don’t forget about our other feeling activities- Feelings Jenga and the DIY Feelings Book!