Autumn: Me: Lesson 3
Feelings and Emotions
Feelings and Emotions
This lesson will further explore the emotions developed in the previous session, introduce a listening exercise that can be used frequently to develop focus, awareness, and active listening in the class, and produce classroom resources for emotions and body language.
Preparation
Depending on previous class either:
– Print out all of the photographs taken in the previous session. Visually these work better in black and white. Make sure to keep each emotion together.
– Or make piles of drawings of each emotion from previous class.
Preparation
Depending on previous class either:
– Print out all of the photographs taken in the previous session. Visually these work better in black and white. Make sure to keep each emotion together.
– Or make piles of drawings of each emotion from previous class.
Warm-up: 10 mins
The Memory Game– this game is an adaptation of an exercise from Theatre of the Oppressed.
– Divide the class into 4 groups, each group sits in a circle, at a corner of the room (out of direct earshot of one another.)
– Invite one group to sit in the centre of the circle, they can sit with their eyes open. Ask them to describe a specific day in as much detail as possible. (eg. Last Christmas Day, communion day, the day a sibling was born, the first day of senior infants) They should include who was there, how they felt, what they were wearing, the order of the day, the smells, the tastes of the food if they ate some, how they felt.... they should keep talking for 1 minute, the rest of the group quietly listens with eyes closed.
– Someone else in the group should come to the centre and describe another day.
– This exercise can be particularly interesting if all of the children present have experienced the same day, either together (eg. a school tour) or separate but a relatable experience (eg. a birthday party.)
– This game will help to hone listening skills, over time it can become a deep listening exercise, it is more effective the more it is repeated. It is interesting for children to hear detail about another child’s perspective.
The Memory Game– this game is an adaptation of an exercise from Theatre of the Oppressed.
– Divide the class into 4 groups, each group sits in a circle, at a corner of the room (out of direct earshot of one another.)
– Invite one group to sit in the centre of the circle, they can sit with their eyes open. Ask them to describe a specific day in as much detail as possible. (eg. Last Christmas Day, communion day, the day a sibling was born, the first day of senior infants) They should include who was there, how they felt, what they were wearing, the order of the day, the smells, the tastes of the food if they ate some, how they felt.... they should keep talking for 1 minute, the rest of the group quietly listens with eyes closed.
– Someone else in the group should come to the centre and describe another day.
– This exercise can be particularly interesting if all of the children present have experienced the same day, either together (eg. a school tour) or separate but a relatable experience (eg. a birthday party.)
– This game will help to hone listening skills, over time it can become a deep listening exercise, it is more effective the more it is repeated. It is interesting for children to hear detail about another child’s perspective.
Development: 40 mins
– Split class into the same groups as the previous week (Happy, Sad, Afraid, Angry, Surprised, Disgusted.)
– Give each group a large sheet of card and the photographs/ drawings for each feeling.
– They should cut these images out carefully, isolating the body part that is expressing the emotion, for instance, there may be an entire body shot, an image of just eyebrows, an image of an arm and hand. Allow lots of discussion in this activity, as they will be talking about how to identify and describe emotions with the body.
– When these have been cut out, the group should put them to the side and write the word for the feeling they have been working with in bubble letters on one sheet full of textures (See lesson Drawing Tools → book1, p.37, alternatively ask them to draw different textures to match their motion.) These will feature lots of textures, allow the group to try to find the textures that match the emotion they are working with best. They should outline the word they are working with and cut this out. (They can also do this in Irish.)
– When they have all of the components they should lay them out on the page and collage them into a layout they like.
– This will be a useful resource for the classroom.
– Split class into the same groups as the previous week (Happy, Sad, Afraid, Angry, Surprised, Disgusted.)
– Give each group a large sheet of card and the photographs/ drawings for each feeling.
– They should cut these images out carefully, isolating the body part that is expressing the emotion, for instance, there may be an entire body shot, an image of just eyebrows, an image of an arm and hand. Allow lots of discussion in this activity, as they will be talking about how to identify and describe emotions with the body.
– When these have been cut out, the group should put them to the side and write the word for the feeling they have been working with in bubble letters on one sheet full of textures (See lesson Drawing Tools → book1, p.37, alternatively ask them to draw different textures to match their motion.) These will feature lots of textures, allow the group to try to find the textures that match the emotion they are working with best. They should outline the word they are working with and cut this out. (They can also do this in Irish.)
– When they have all of the components they should lay them out on the page and collage them into a layout they like.
– This will be a useful resource for the classroom.
Conclusion: 30 mins
– These collage posters should be beautiful objects in themselves but can also be hung on the wall as resources for the classroom material.
– Ask each group to present their work to the class. Invite them to talk about whether their work describes all of the aspects of this feeling, if they have captured it well or not. Ask what they would add or if they would embody it in another way if they had been in that group.
– Give each child 10 minutes to write and reflect on their experience of the class.
– These collage posters should be beautiful objects in themselves but can also be hung on the wall as resources for the classroom material.
– Ask each group to present their work to the class. Invite them to talk about whether their work describes all of the aspects of this feeling, if they have captured it well or not. Ask what they would add or if they would embody it in another way if they had been in that group.
– Give each child 10 minutes to write and reflect on their experience of the class.
