Introduction

Have a picture or a story book about a particular emotion (e.g., sadness, anger, happiness) and have it at the front of the group to capture attention. Or, put on a very sad or happy face and over exaggerate the emotion to catch attention.

 Objective/Purpose:

To help child become aware of basic feelings and to become aware of the feelings of others.

 Procedure:

1. Have a collection of pictures of people expressing a variety of emotions. Make sure you have at least the following: sadness, happiness, anger, disgust, excitement, surprise, fear.

2. Show the pictures and ask children to describe the emotions that are being shown. Have children also relate why a person might feel that emotion (e.g., "The girl is sad because she can't find her mommy.") Mirrors can also be used for children to practice the emotional expression they are seeing.

3. Children can be asked to respond individually to pictures to see if they understand the emotions or they can be asked to demonstrate a particular emotion.

  Practice & Extended Activities:

Have a variety of magazines. Allow children to look through the magazines and cut out as many emotions as they can find. Paste the emotions on paper.

Children can share their collage of emotional expressions with the group and describe and defend their choices. Children can also be asked to create a drawing of a particular time when they felt strongly about one of the emotions or to share that experience in journal form. Expression of knowledge can also be demonstrated through drama (e.g., creating a sad play) or in art (e.g., make an angry painting).