Lesson Plan: Exploring emotions

THEME:

Session Overview: This session is about introducing and normalising our emotions and giving children the language and skills to identify and understand their emotions. Aims and objectives: •  For children to understand that

everyone has emotions •  For children to be able to name their

emotions •  For children to understand that noticing

EWS is helpful •  For children to recognise and connect

with the sensations we have in our bodies

Session Length: Standard lesson Session Type: Activity-based Materials needed: Whiteboard and pens Gingerbread person printout at end of session plan Learning outcomes: •  For children to be able to name their

emotions •  For children to be able to recognise the

EWS for their emotions so they can act on them earlier

•  For children to know that emotions are normal and that they can share emotions with other people

KEY STAGE: 2

3  

 

Exploring emotions   Say to the group: “Feelings are very important. Some feelings don't feel good in our bodies and some do, but even the feelings that aren't so nice are still important.”   Ask the class why they think feelings are important.   Activity 1: Ask the class to name every feeling that they can think of and record these on the flipchart or board   Facilitators Tip: Don't worry about the words the class come up with to describe emotions, record any ideas they come up with   After they have exhausted all their ideas ask the class what they think the TOP 4 emotions are? (The answers are: anger, fear, happiness and sadness). There are links to helpful videos from the Disney Pixar animation ‘Inside Out’ to accompany this.

Joy: https://youtu.be/T2OPLlnepoo Anger: https://youtu.be/icWntkmPOXI Disgust: https://youtu.be/wXhubeoEQcY Sadness: https://youtu.be/KHYYmliVInc Fear: https://youtu.be/YDitIj2NkM0

4  

 

Exploring emotions Activity 2: Expressing Emotions   Tell the class that you want them to all walk around the room, and that when you call out a feeling you want them to say 'hello' to the nearest person as you would if you were feeling this emotion. Use the emotions that they have named in activity 1.   Hints & Tips: This is a good activity to increase emotional literacy as the class will not only need to identify body language, tone of voice and facial expressions for different emotions but also notice what these emotions 'look like' when they are expressed by others. This activity can also help young people connect feelings with behaviour.   Ask the class to sit down and tell the class these simple things about emotions.:  

“We all have emotions and they are normal Different feelings make us behave in different ways

We might show our feelings in different ways from each other but this is OK. Feelings come and go and no feeling lasts

forever.” Ask the class if they have any thoughts or questions about what they've just heard.

5  

 

Exploring emotions

Activity 3: Early Warning Signs Body Map   The reason for teaching children to recognise their own EWS' is so that they can begin using the information provided by their bodies to navigate multiple situations. This creates more resilient and emotionally literate children who are more able to identify when something doesn't feel right and act on the situation in a safer, more thought out way.   You can say to the class: “If we can learn what our feelings feel like in our bodies really early on then we can do things that help us instead of make things worse or harder.”   Instructions: Give each young person a blank gingerbread person as provided below. Facilitators Tip: Ask them not to draw anything on the page until they have further instructions). Ask the class to imagine something that they are scared of and to draw on their gingerbread man the things that would happen in their body if they were feeling scared. Facilitators Tip: You can tell the class that there is a prize for the map which has the most EWS’ on it to encourage them to think of as many as possible. Prompt the class to check that they have heart beating fast, breathing, goosebumps, butterflies in your stomach, feel sick etc. Now ask the class to imagine something that they get angry about and then draw on the body map all the things that would happen if they got angry.

6  

 

Exploring emotions Repeat the above instructions but with sad (It's OK if some of these warning signs are the same as for 'scared’). There are many ways of doing this exercise that work really well… •  You can get the class to work in small groups on a piece of

flip chart paper. •  You can get each individual to do their own map. •  You can draw the gingerbread person on the board and get

each student to come up and draw on the suggestion they have made.

•  You can draw around young people so that their body map is life-sized.

After the class have finished their body maps ask them to discuss how other people would know that they are 1.  Angry 2.  Sad 3.  Scared   This helps young people to begin identifying how they express their emotions and how different emotions have different signs both internally and externally.   Before ending the session, ask the class to each think of one thing they feel in their bodies when they are happy or excited and one way that they express these feelings.

7