Autumn: Me: Lesson 2
Exploring Emotions and Expanding your Portrait
Exploring Emotions and Expanding your Portrait
This session aims to introduce a more complex approach to understanding and expressing feelings and emotions, including body language and movement.
Preparation before the class Make a list of descriptive words for the spectrum of feelings from happy to sad, these should include language appropriate to the group, colloquialisms and some complicated words that they might not have encountered before. These could also be prepared by the children, using a Thesaurus, in an English class activity earlier in the week. For example:Over the moon, merry, cheerful, elated, gloomy, under the weather, low, down in the dumps, glum etc....
Preparation before the class Make a list of descriptive words for the spectrum of feelings from happy to sad, these should include language appropriate to the group, colloquialisms and some complicated words that they might not have encountered before. These could also be prepared by the children, using a Thesaurus, in an English class activity earlier in the week. For example:Over the moon, merry, cheerful, elated, gloomy, under the weather, low, down in the dumps, glum etc....
Warm-up: 10 mins
A line from happy to sad and everything in between – An exercise from philosophy for children. This is a way to develop vocabulary to describe emotions and awareness of their spectrum and intensity.
– Put a piece or rope on the floor in the centre of the room (A skipping rope is good for this.)
– Near the top of the rope, put a piece of paper that says happy, near the other end put a paper that says sad.
– Each child is given a phrase/ word describing emotions between happy and sad at varying degrees (prepared beforehand).
– Taking turns they should walk up and place their word where they think it should go on the line.
– As the words are added, some might need to be moved, this is fine, children can negotiate this together.
– Have a short conversation about the line of emotions produced during this exercise. This could be hung on the wall.
Introduction: 25 mins
– Divide the class into 6 groups.
– Give each group a feeling: happy, sad, afraid, angry, surprised, disgusted. (Older classes can be given a more nuanced selection, for instance envious, disappointed etc..)
– For 5 minutes they should work together to decide how to express this feeling with their bodies. They should come up with some bodily gestures and some facial expressions. Depending on their age, these can be more complex, ask how they might express surprise with just their feet, or anger with just their eyebrows. If using a camera follow the next step, if you don’t have a camera skip to the last step.
– Set a space for photography, somewhere bright with a neutral background (if there is no well-lit space use an artificial light to brighten the space and create shadow). Ask children to sit around the photography space. Each group should come up in turn to perform their best physical interpretations of their selected feeling.
– Take pictures of these as directed by the children. This should be done in order (remember which emotion is which!) Make sure to take plenty of pictures, there should be lots to choose from at the end. Zoom in and try to get good detail.
– These should be printed out for the next session and collected into piles for each emotion.
– If not using a camera ask each emotion group to sit together and take turns to perform each emotion. They should have a couple of sheets of paper and draw one another expressing the emotion from different angles and with close-ups. Ask questions like “can you tell if someone is angry from just looking at their eyebrows? Can you draw a mouth that is happy? Make some details that show how the eye is sad. Mention body language like slumping shoulders when someone is sad, or hands in fists if someone is cross.
– Collect these drawings into piles for the following class, make sure they don’t get mixed up!
A line from happy to sad and everything in between – An exercise from philosophy for children. This is a way to develop vocabulary to describe emotions and awareness of their spectrum and intensity.
– Put a piece or rope on the floor in the centre of the room (A skipping rope is good for this.)
– Near the top of the rope, put a piece of paper that says happy, near the other end put a paper that says sad.
– Each child is given a phrase/ word describing emotions between happy and sad at varying degrees (prepared beforehand).
– Taking turns they should walk up and place their word where they think it should go on the line.
– As the words are added, some might need to be moved, this is fine, children can negotiate this together.
– Have a short conversation about the line of emotions produced during this exercise. This could be hung on the wall.
Introduction: 25 mins
– Divide the class into 6 groups.
– Give each group a feeling: happy, sad, afraid, angry, surprised, disgusted. (Older classes can be given a more nuanced selection, for instance envious, disappointed etc..)
– For 5 minutes they should work together to decide how to express this feeling with their bodies. They should come up with some bodily gestures and some facial expressions. Depending on their age, these can be more complex, ask how they might express surprise with just their feet, or anger with just their eyebrows. If using a camera follow the next step, if you don’t have a camera skip to the last step.
– Set a space for photography, somewhere bright with a neutral background (if there is no well-lit space use an artificial light to brighten the space and create shadow). Ask children to sit around the photography space. Each group should come up in turn to perform their best physical interpretations of their selected feeling.
– Take pictures of these as directed by the children. This should be done in order (remember which emotion is which!) Make sure to take plenty of pictures, there should be lots to choose from at the end. Zoom in and try to get good detail.
– These should be printed out for the next session and collected into piles for each emotion.
– If not using a camera ask each emotion group to sit together and take turns to perform each emotion. They should have a couple of sheets of paper and draw one another expressing the emotion from different angles and with close-ups. Ask questions like “can you tell if someone is angry from just looking at their eyebrows? Can you draw a mouth that is happy? Make some details that show how the eye is sad. Mention body language like slumping shoulders when someone is sad, or hands in fists if someone is cross.
– Collect these drawings into piles for the following class, make sure they don’t get mixed up!
Development: 30 mins
– Ask children to take the self-portraits made in the last class and glue them to a rigid piece of card.
– Instruct them to take a sheet of tracing paper and attach it to the top of the card with masking tape. They now have a type of flip book.
– Ask students to use a pencil to trace the shape of the face from the portrait underneath, making sure to include all of the prominent features (Outline of the head, ears, eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth.)
– Then ask them to flip up this card so that they just have the tracing paper sheet to work on.
– Request them to use the guiding pencil lines and work on top of them with bright markers to create another portrait, this time expressing an emotion of their choice.
– Encourage them to think of what kind of emotion they might like to express in this drawing and how they might do that, refer back to how they might have represented surprise with their eyes in the earlier photography lesson.
– If they are working fast, they can add another layer, just attach it on top of the first sheet of tracing paper and repeat the process. They can make one for each of the emotions.
– Ask children to take the self-portraits made in the last class and glue them to a rigid piece of card.
– Instruct them to take a sheet of tracing paper and attach it to the top of the card with masking tape. They now have a type of flip book.
– Ask students to use a pencil to trace the shape of the face from the portrait underneath, making sure to include all of the prominent features (Outline of the head, ears, eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth.)
– Then ask them to flip up this card so that they just have the tracing paper sheet to work on.
– Request them to use the guiding pencil lines and work on top of them with bright markers to create another portrait, this time expressing an emotion of their choice.
– Encourage them to think of what kind of emotion they might like to express in this drawing and how they might do that, refer back to how they might have represented surprise with their eyes in the earlier photography lesson.
– If they are working fast, they can add another layer, just attach it on top of the first sheet of tracing paper and repeat the process. They can make one for each of the emotions.
Conclusion: 25 mins
–These portraits can stand up by simply cutting two little feet from left over cardboard.
–Invite children to think about how they express their feelings, and the good ways in which to express each of the emotions. Ask if they can give an example of a story of when someone managed their emotion well and a time when someone did not manage their emotion well.
– Take 10 minutes for the children to write/ draw/ collage in their notebook recounting or describing the class and how they felt about it.
– A nice exercise is to ask the children to write a little more about an instance when they managed their emotions well and when they managed their emotions poorly. These could be collected and put into a box anonymously. They can be read out to the class intermittently to continue the conversation about how they believe this anonymous individual dealt with a situation and how they might act now.
–These portraits can stand up by simply cutting two little feet from left over cardboard.
–Invite children to think about how they express their feelings, and the good ways in which to express each of the emotions. Ask if they can give an example of a story of when someone managed their emotion well and a time when someone did not manage their emotion well.
– Take 10 minutes for the children to write/ draw/ collage in their notebook recounting or describing the class and how they felt about it.
– A nice exercise is to ask the children to write a little more about an instance when they managed their emotions well and when they managed their emotions poorly. These could be collected and put into a box anonymously. They can be read out to the class intermittently to continue the conversation about how they believe this anonymous individual dealt with a situation and how they might act now.
