Lesson 8: Emotions

Essential Question: How do I identify my own emotions?

Click for Lesson 8 (PDF)

Lesson Overview

1. Brain Warmup

2. Read Aloud

3. Modeling Activity

4. Group Activity

6. Brain Cooldown

Purpose:

- By reviewing emotions and learning how to use 'I feel' statements, students will be able to identify their own emotions and be able to state how they feel.

Vocabulary:

- common emotions (happy, sad, mad, tired, frustrated, surprised)

- 'I feel' statements

Additional Book

Understanding Myself by Mary C. Lamia

- This story helps students understand and identify strong emotions they might experience.

Brain Warmup: Feeling Wall

Purpose: This activity will help students brainstorm emotions one person or themselves may feel.

Materials: sticky notes

Time: 5 minutes

Procedure:

Each student will receive one sticky note.
On the front board or poster board, write the word ‘Emotions’ at the top.
Students will think of an emotion someone may feel or an emotion they have felt before. Students will write their emotion on their sticky note and place the sticky note on the front board or poster board.
If time allows, students can write another emotion on another sticky note to place on the front board or poster board.
Once students have placed all the sticky notes on the board, read and review the emotions the students listed.

Read Aloud: The Way I Feel by Janen Cain

Before reading the story, ask students “how has ever felt a strong emotion before?” Ask students to show you by using their thumb. A thumb up means ‘yes, I have felt a strong emotion’. A thumb down means ‘no, I have not felt a strong emotion’. A thumb in the middle means ‘I might have felt a strong emotion’. This strategy is called the Thumbmometer.

This read aloud focuses on describing emotions and how one might feel when experiencing a specific emotion. When reading, ask for students to make connections to the text. Ask students to show the ‘me too’ symbol or sign if they have felt the emotion being described. After reading, ask for volunteers to share connections they made in the story. The following question can help guide the discussion.

When was a time you felt (silly, scared, thankful, shy, bored, etc.)?

Click for Read Aloud of the Story

Additional Lesson

Activities

Donald Duck Self Control

- Watch the short video about Donald Duck and ask the students to identify how he is feeling. Ask the students to think about what made him feel that way and how he could change his behavior. Ask the students to create an 'I feel' that Donald Duck could use to describe his emotions.

- Donald Duck Self Control Video

Additional Resources

Face Books:

- This article describes how to create a 'Face Book'. A 'Face Book' is very similar to the Emotion Book activity in this lesson.

Teaching Students to Describe Emotions:

- This Edutopia article provides helpful hints and tips on how to help students identify and describe their own emotions.

Modeling Activity: I Feel Statements

Purpose: The ‘I feel’ statements teach students how to identify and state their emotion. The statements include a three-part sentence which help students clearly state how he or she is feeling.

Materials: paper and pencil

Time: 10 to 15 minutes

Procedure:

Students will sit on the carpet or open floor space to participate in the activity.
Ask students to think about a time they felt strong feelings. Students will answer the following questions. Provide students with time to think.
1. What were you feeling?
2. What happened that led to your emotion?
3. What were you thinking at the time about what happened?
Ask for volunteers to share their answers to the questions. After the discussion, ask students “did you state your emotion you were feeling?”
Introduce the ‘I feel’ statements. Explain the statement includes three parts that need to be said in order for the statement to be an ‘I feel’ statement.
Part 1: I feel _____. Write ‘I feel ______’ on the front board or poster board. Tell student that an emotion or feeling word will fill in the blank space.
1. Example: I feel __sad__
Part 2: I feel _____ when _____. Write ‘I feel ____ when ____’ on the front board or poster board. Tell students that an emotion or feeling word will fill in the first blank space. Tell students that the second blank will be filled with words that describe when you feel that emotion.
1. Example: I feel __happy__ when __I go to the beach__
Part 3: I feel _____ when _____ because ____________. Write the statement with the blanks on the board. Tell the students that an emotion or feeling word will fill in the first blank space. Tell students that the second blank will be filled with words that describe when you feel that emotion. Tell students the last blank will describe why you felt that strong emotion or feeling.
1. Example: I feel __tired__ when __I stay up late__ because __I go to bed past my bedtime__.
After introducing the ‘I feel’ statements, keep the statement with the blanks (I feel ____ when _____ because _____.) on the front board or poster board. Ask students to think of a time they had a strong feeling. Provide students with some examples.
1. How do you feel when you go on vacation or a trip?
2. How do you feel when you go to school?
3. How do you feel when you are at an amusement park?
4. How do you feel on your birthday?
Students will think of a time and write their own ‘I feel’ statement on a stripe of paper.
When students are done writing, ask for volunteers to share their ‘I feel’ statements and collect the statements to review.

Group Activity: My Emotion Book

Purpose: This activity allows for students to select 6 emotions and demonstrate how they might look during the emotion. By doing this, students will be able to recognize when he or she is feeling a strong feeling.
Materials: construction paper, pictures, camera, glue, string or staples
Time: 15 to 20 minutes
Procedure:

Students will sit at their desk or a table to complete this activity.
Give each student a sticky note or small piece of scrap paper. Students will write down 6 emotions they have or might feel. Write examples of emotions on the front board or poster board.
When students have their emotions written, ask students to think of how they would demonstrate that emotion only using their face. Tell students to think about “if someone felt happy, what would their face look like? Or if you felt happy, what would your face look like?”
Call one student at a time to their pictures. Students should bring their list of emotions with them. Students will demonstrate each emotion using their face and the teacher will take a picture of their face demonstrating the emotion.
Teacher or instructor will print out pictures for students.
Students will cut their pictures out and glue them on colorful construction paper. Once the picture is glued on the construction paper, students will write the emotion being demonstrated under the picture. Students can make a cover page titled ‘______’s Emotion Book’. Once all the pictures are glued and labels are written, the book can be stapled together or tied together using string.

Note: This project can be broken into two days. On day one, the list of emotions can be created and the pictures of the students can be taken. On day two, the students can cut their pictures out, glue their pictures, and finish the emotion book. See resources for additional information on how to create an emotion book.

Brain Cooldown: Say Please and Thank you

Purpose: This activity asks students to describe something they are good at or a characteristic of themselves in one word. By doing this, it will help students build their confidence in themselves and establish a positive and welcoming classroom community.

Materials: colorful strips of paper, letters to spell out ‘I Am’

Time: 5 minutes

Procedure:

Have a wall with the sentence starter ‘I am’ on it.
Students will sit at their desk or a table to complete the activity. All students will receive or pick out a colorful strip of paper.
On the paper, students will write one word or a short phrase describing themselves. Provide prompting questions to help students think of a word or phrase to write.
1. What are things you are good at?
2. What do you like to do?
Students can draw visuals or pictures on their strip of paper along with or in place of the word or short phrase.
Once students have completed writing and drawing, ask for volunteers to share their word or phrase and collect all the strips of paper. Tape the strips of paper on the wall labeled ‘I am’.

Note: See resources for an example of an ‘I Am’ Wall.