FAQ

The Krewelings | The Krewe of Feelings™ is a New Orleans krewe of 20 characters, each carrying one big feeling, built for PreK–2nd grade classrooms and homes. Gumbo the gator feels happy, Tavi the turtle feels scared, Boplin the bunny feels energetic. Giving a feeling a name, a face, and a friend to identify with is often the first step toward a child saying “I feel like Tavi right now” instead of melting down, shutting down, or acting out.

Because four is too few and forty is more than a small child can hold.

Most feelings charts give a child four faces — happy, sad, angry, scared — so a child who feels embarrassed points at sad, and a child who feels jealous points at angry. They learn the wrong name for what they’re carrying.

Twenty isn’t the true count of human feelings; there isn’t one. A few of the Krewe carry states rather than emotions — sleepy, distracted, sneaky — because those are the ones most often mistaken for misbehavior. Twenty is enough names for a child to get specific, and enough for them to notice there are more.

A starting vocabulary, not a finished map.

The system is designed for PreK through 2nd grade. Younger siblings tend to join in on the characters, and the grown-up guidance is written for the adults — parents, grandparents, teachers, and counselors — beside them.

In New Orleans, a krewe is the group that puts on the parade — people who show up for each other, celebrate together, and make sure nobody stands alone. That is exactly what we want feelings to be for a child: not something to hide, but a whole krewe of companions. It’s okay to feel what you feel!

CREW-lings. The name is “Krewe of Feelings” squished together: Krewe (said like “crew”) + feelings = Krewelings.

No. The Krewelings is an educational resource that supports social-emotional learning at school and at home. It does not constitute clinical, psychological, or therapeutic advice, and it is not a substitute for professional mental health services. If you have concerns about a child’s emotional or behavioral health, please consult a qualified professional.

Our When to Call Someone page lists warning signs from health and child-safety organizations, and who to call. If a child is in danger right now, call 911. If a child talks about wanting to die or hurting themselves, call or text 988.

Use the names in everyday moments: “Are you feeling a little like Hux today?” Share your own — “I’m feeling like Cubby right now, a little worried” — because an adult naming feelings teaches a child it’s safe to. Keep the characters visible (the fridge counts), and don’t worry about doing it perfectly. Once a week is enough; every day is wonderful.

That’s valuable information, not a problem. A child who keeps reaching for the same hard feeling is telling you something they don’t yet have other words for — which is exactly what the characters are for. Sit with it, ask about it gently, and if a pattern genuinely concerns you, that’s a conversation for your pediatrician or school counselor.

That’s the system working as intended. The characters are designed to be reached for — the more a child talks about their krewe, the more feelings-vocabulary they’re practicing.

No. The Krewelings gives children vocabulary to understand feelings before behavior becomes the issue. Feelings drive behavior — a child who can name what they feel is a child you can actually reach with everything else you teach.

There are no wrong answers here. Pointing counts. Silence counts. For a child who isn’t ready yet, watching is participation — familiarity comes first, and mastery follows in its own time.

45 jumbo cards, 90 sides, all 20 characters — with ~360 coping tips in one deck. Every character card carries 9 tips: 3 for kids on the child side, and 3 for parents plus 3 for teachers on the grown-up side. That split grown-up side — home guidance and classroom guidance on the same card — is something no other feelings deck we know of does.

You don’t need one to use the other. The deck builds a shared feelings vocabulary; the workbook gives you the routines and activities to put it to work every day. Together they build something that sticks — workbook activity pages even carry a card-match strip telling you exactly which card pairs with each lesson.

Six color-coded sections you can enter anywhere: a quick-start guide (including calm-corner setup), reproducible daily routines, an emotion deep-dive with a teacher reference page for every feeling, family take-home pages, a certificate, and resources. It’s deliberately non-linear — the right page is whichever one your children need today.

Pages marked with the COPY ME symbol may be photocopied for the purchasing educator’s own classroom. Other pages are reference-only, and each classroom needs its own licensed copy. Your purchase also includes a downloadable set of the Copy Me routine pages via a personal link.

An 11-poster classroom suite — including the Emotionometer, the wall-sized scale children use to show how big a feeling is. The posters are the whole-class layer of the system: the cards live in the calm corner, the workbook runs the routines, and the walls speak the same language.

Yes — the deck includes a QR code that unlocks a bonus printable pack of coloring and activity pages. The workbook includes its own separate download: the Copy Me routine pages, licensed to the classroom or home that bought it.

The Krewelings is grounded in the CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) framework, which identifies five core competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Whatever your school calls this work — SEL, character education, emotional regulation, well-being — the goal is the same: a regulated child is a reachable child.

A four-step check-in: NAME IT (which character do you feel like today?), SIZE IT (how big is the feeling?), TOOL IT (try one coping tool together), and RETURN (acknowledge the effort, then transition back). It runs in ten minutes on a calm day and three on a hard one — and a three-minute check-in every single day builds more regulation than a perfect ten-minute lesson once a week.

Yes — email store@thekrewelings.com before ordering and we’ll work with you directly on quantities, timing, and whatever your purchasing process needs.

No. Everything your child needs comes home from the classroom. If you’d like the characters at home too, the deck works beautifully there — but it’s a want, not a homework assignment.

Right now we ship within the United States. We’re a small team building carefully — wider shipping will come once we can do it well. Full details are on our Shipping & Returns page.

Email store@thekrewelings.com with your order number and a photo, and a real person will make it right. You won’t need to ship anything back.

Plenty. Take the “Which Kreweling are you?” quiz, and join the email krewe to get a new free coloring page every month. Free downloads live on our Free Downloads page.