Feelings & Emotions Lesson Plan

Notes:

This lesson teaches the basic emotions vocabulary and situations associated with these emotions.

Lesson Procedure:

Warm Up and Maintenance:

New Learning and Practice:

1. Teach the feelings vocab
On the board draw a large circle. Then draw two eyes, ears, nose and a smiley mouth. Do the same facial gesture and say "I’m happy! Happy, happy, happy". Get everyone to chorus "happy" and do the facial expression. Then erase the mouth and draw a sad mouth (and maybe a tear under one eye) and teach "sad". Do the same for the rest of the vocab (hungry, angry, scared, sleepy - use the flashcards as reference).

2. Do "Draw the faces on the board"
Invite a student up to the front of the class and give him/her the chalk/marker. Whisper a feelings word (e.g. "angry") and get him/her to draw the face in the circle. If he/she is having difficulty, show him a picture or flashcard. Invite the class to shout out the answers – the first student with the correct answer can draw the next picture.

3. Play "Face draw" pairs
Put students in pairs and give each pair a large, blanksheet of paper. Have each pair draw circles on the paper. Then have them in turns draw faces with different emotions for their partners to guess. At the end of the activity invite some students to show the rest of the class their pictures and say what the feeling words are (or get the others to guess).

4. Teach the rest of the song vocab
Before class, print flashcards for the following vocab: sunny, rainy, eat, noisy, stormy, sleep. Hold up the first card, say the word and do the action (see Gestures section below) and have everyone chorus the word and copy your gesture. Then stick the flashcard on the board. Do the same for all the flashcards and stick them on the board in the order of the song, in a line across the board. Once all the cards are on the board, point to any card and say, "What’s this?". Elicit the word. Keep pointing to flashcards randomly as the class shouts out the words, getting faster and faster. Finally, ask individual students what different cards are.

5. Play "Missing Flashcard Guess"
With the flashcards still on the board, tell everyone to close and cover their eyes. Remove a card and hold it behind your back. Tell everyone to open their eyes and shout out the missing flashcard. Do this for the other cards at a quick pace.

6. Match feelings to the situations
With the flashcards still on the board, ask the class how you feel when it’s sunny (e.g. ask "Do you feel angry when it’s sunny?" and do an angry face – hopefully everyone will respond "No! Happy"). Draw a happy face under the sunny flashcard. For each card elicit the feeling (from the song) and draw the face under each card.

7. Practice actions of the song
Now we have all of the vocab on the board. Teach the actions for each word (see Gestures section below). Next, point to each picture on the board and get everyone to do the action.

8. Sing "The Feelings Song"
Play the song through once and have everyone look at the pictures on the board (point as the song plays) and do the actions. Next, play the song again and sing along, encouraging everyone to sing as they do the actions.

Lyrics for "The Feelings Song"

Verse 1:
When it’s sunny, I am happy,
When it’s rainy, I am sad,
When it’s lunchtime, I am hungry,
Time to eat, yummy!

Verse 2:
When it’s noisy, I am angry,
When it’s stormy, I am scared,
When it’s bedtime, I am sleepy,
Time to sleep, good night!

Verse 3:
When it’s sunny, I am ____________,
When it’s rainy, I am ____________,
When it’s lunchtime, I am ____________,
Time to eat, yummy!

Verse 4:
When it’s noisy, I am ____________,
When it’s stormy, I am ____________,
When it’s bedtime, I am ____________,
Time to sleep, good night!

(download MP3 here)

Gestures for "The Feelings Song"

The actions for this reflect the situations and their associated feelings.

"When it’s sunny" (do round circle shape with your arms), "I am happy" (smile).
"When it’s rainy" (wriggle your fingers like rain), “I am sad” (look sad).
"When it’s lunchtime" (rub your tummy), "I am hungry" (look hungry).
"Time to eat", (gesture eating), "yummy!" (look happy).
"When it’s noisy" (cover your ears), "I am angry" (look angry).
"When it’s stormy" (gesture under an umbrella), "I am scared" (look scared).
"When it’s bedtime" (gesture sleeping – head sideways on pillow hands), "I am sleepy" (yawn with hand over mouth).
"Time to sleep, good night!" (yawn and wave goodnight).

We also have a video that you can stream in class to sing along with (Internet connection required):

9. Read classroom reader "How do you Feel When ...?"
Let's follow the song with a reader which uses the structures from the song. Before class, download and print off the reader "How do you Feel When ...?". As you go through each page, point to the pictures and ask your students how they feel in each situation, for example:

Teacher: (reading from page 1) What's this?
Students: Sun!
Teacher: Yes, that's right! It's a sun so it's sunny. How do you feel when it's sunny?
Students: Happy!
Teacher: Let's check (turning to page 2) ... "I am happy", yes, that's right!

Read classroom reader "How do you Feel When ...?" Get the students really involved in the story by asking lots of questions and asking them if they feel differently in each situation.

After reading the story, give out a reader worksheet to each student and have everyone match pictures. Then read through the story one more time (without stopping for questions, etc.) to check the answers as a class.

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Alternatively, watch our video version of the reader (Internet connection required):

10. Do the "How do you feel when ...?" worksheet

To finish off this section of the lesson, give out the worksheet to everyone to do. As your students are doing the worksheets, ask questions (e.g. "How does he/she feel?", etc.).

Do the "How do you feel when ...?" worksheet

Wrap Up:

1. Assign Homework: "My feelings 1" worksheet or "My feelings 2" worksheet:
The first worksheet only requires students to draw pictures whereas the second has sentences to write. Assign the worksheet according to the level of your students.
2. Wrap up the lesson with some ideas from our "Warm Up & Wrap Up" page.