This Is Me
Expressing Feelings
Teacher Lesson Guide
(swipe to advance)
Objectives
Awareness
Empathy
Decision Making
Lesson Design
45-60 Minutes
5 Min: Review Learning Objectives
20 Min: Literary Discussion: The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf
5 Min: Supporting Activity: Feelings Charades
10 Min: Reinforcing Activity: Don’t Tear My Heart
3 Min: Closing Activity
Objectives
Practice skills of empathy by:
identifying personal feelings using a variety of different vocabulary
showing awareness through recognizing different feelings in others
Consider, through dialogue, how decisions based on feelings contribute to outcomes
Lingo List
Language of Feelings
tired
proud
frightened
excited
scared
glad
shy
sensitive
angry
brave
terrible
horrible
worried
grumpy
crabby
fantastic
curious
anxious
uneasy
miserable
timid
joyful
delighted
content
frustrated
lonely
confident
gloomy
emotional
preoccupied
bothered
satisfied
certain
sure
hesitant
unique
nosy
irritated
In this lesson, participants will identify their own feelings and recognize various emotions in others.
Empathy, is the ability to understand what someone else is feeling. It is an important skill in building friendships and making decisions that are good for everyone. The ability to empathize is connected to positive social experiences and communication, better health, career and success in school.
A key way to grow empathy is being able to see and identify our own emotions and the feelings of others around us. This awareness helps us to understand different ideas, and experiences by comparing, imagining and seeing those feelings in ourselves.
Guiding Questions for Class:
How are you feeling today? When do you talk about emotions? What are some feelings/emotions others express? How do you recognize the difference in how someone is feeling?
Reading:
Facing Fears
There once was a shepherd boy who was bored as he sat on the hillside watching the village sheep. To amuse himself he took a great breath and sang out, "Wolf! Wolf! The Wolf is chasing the sheep!"
The villagers came running up the hill to help the boy drive the wolf away. But when they arrived at the top of the hill, they found no wolf. The boy laughed at the sight of their angry faces.
"Don't cry 'wolf', shepherd boy," said the villagers, "when there's no wolf!" They went grumbling back down the hill.
Later, the boy sang out again, "Wolf! Wolf! The wolf is chasing the sheep!" To his naughty delight, he watched the villagers run up the hill to help him drive the wolf away.
When the villagers saw no wolf they sternly said, "Save your frightened song for when there is really something wrong! Don't cry 'wolf' when there is NO wolf!"
But the boy just grinned and watched them go grumbling down the hill once more.
Later, he saw a REAL wolf prowling about his flock. Alarmed, he leaped to his feet and sang out as loudly as he could, "Wolf! Wolf!"
But the villagers thought he was trying to fool them again, and so they didn't come.
At sunset, everyone wondered why the shepherd boy hadn't returned to the village with their sheep. They went up the hill to find the boy. They found him weeping.
"There really was a wolf here! The flock has scattered! I cried out, "Wolf!" Why didn't you come?"
An old man tried to comfort the boy as they walked back to the village.
"We'll help you look for the lost sheep in the morning," he said, putting his arm around the youth, "Nobody believes a liar...even when he is telling the truth!
Open-Ended Questions:
After the reading, debrief the story using the open-ended questions below.
Awareness of Feelings
What are some reasons for having a bad day?
What are some things that make you feel grumpy or grouchy?
How do you think others feel when they are not included?
Empathy Practice
If someone is having a bad day, how could you help?
If someone is frustrated, what could you do?
If you see someone being picked on, how does it make you feel?
Decision Making
What is a better way to respond to frustration than to hit, punch or kick?
If you are not having a good day, or are feeling frustrated, what could you do?
If someone or something is bothering you, what could you do?
Body Language Activity: Feelings Charades
If you are in person, form a circle with the group.
Have each student take turns trying to make a face to express a feeling while the rest of the group tries to guess accurately what feeling is being conveyed.
At the end of the activity, select students to share anecdotes about their learning during the small group activities.
Reinforcing Activity: Don’t Tear My Heart
Instructions:
Make sure each participant has a 4” to 5” heart with their name largely printed across the heart.
On the large paper with the heart facilitator write words above or below the large heart – “Don’t Tear My Heart”.
Explain to the students that you all are going to do an activity that will help prepare them to work and learn better with others. During this activity students will share ways of learning together and caring for others in our home, school, on the playground, in our neighborhood, etc.
Before the activity, briefly describe “put-downs”, either with words—name calling and teasing—or with actions, like excluding someone, make someone feel badly about themselves. However, do not record or write down any of the put-downs or those behaviors may be reinforced.
Then read the story called The Torn Heart, about Taylor. Tell participants that their paper heart represents Taylor’s heart. Whenever they hear a put-down in the story, tell them to make a small tear in the outside of their heart toward the center but keeping the heart intact. [Model partial tear]
Tell the participants to pay attention to what is happening to Taylor’s heart and be prepared to share when the story is over.
IMPORTANT: Be mindful of highly empathetic individuals or those experiencing situations in which such put-downs might be common. Acknowledge for them that it is sad to see what is happening to Taylor’s heart. Remind them the story was written to teach people how to treat one another more kindly.
The Torn Heart
One Tuesday morning, when the alarm clock rang, Taylor did not get out of bed. Ten minutes later, Taylor’s mother opened the bedroom door.
"Come on," she said, “you’ll be late for school again. You're a lazy kid.” (Tear Heart)
"But Mama, I'm sick," Taylor said.
"Why do you always act like a baby?” (Tear Heart) Taylor 's mother said, "You're always sick on PE day. Just get up and get ready. Your brother is already dressed. (Tear Heart)
Taylor quickly put on some clothes and went to the kitchen to get something to eat. Taylor’s older brother, Lucas, had just finished. "I'm leaving, Mama," Lucas said.
"You wait for Taylor," their mother said.
"That slowpoke (Tear Heart) is always late,” Lucas said. "I don't want to miss the bus."
The two made it to the bus just in time, with Taylor following behind. As the doors of the bus closed and it started rolling, Taylor remembered the homework left on the bedroom desk. Taylor asked the bus driver if she would wait while Taylor went back for the homework.
"What are you, kid, the bus royalty? (Tear Heart) This isn't a taxi. Anyway, that's what you get for being late.” (Tear Heart)
After explaining what happened to the homework, Taylor ‘s teacher said, “That's the fourth time this month, Taylor. Have you really been doing your work? I'm beginning to think you aren’t telling me the truth. (Tear Heart) I'm afraid I'm going to have to talk to your parents about this.”
Taylor liked to play sports but did not like PE class. That day in PE, they were supposed to play basketball. The teachers asked the kids to divide themselves into two teams, the Lions and Tigers. Within a few minutes, there were ten children on each team, with only Taylor left. (Tear Heart)
The captain of the Lions team said: " Taylor’s not good at basketball. Taylor’s more like a scaredy cat”. (Tear Heart)
"Taylor is no Tiger, (Tear Heart) said the captain of the Tigers. And the others laughed. (Tear Heart)
Finally, the teacher assigned Taylor to the Lions team, where Taylor sat on the bench (Tear Heart) for the whole time because the captain never put Taylor in the game. (Tear Heart)
That day after school, Taylor's brother, Lucas, was playing soccer with his friends in the field near their house. Taylor loved soccer and asked Lucas to play. "No way,” Lucas said. “You'd ruin the game.” (Tear Heart)
Their mother heard this and said: "You should let Taylor play with you, Lucas."
“But Mama, Taylor’s a slow poke”, (Tear Heart) Lucas said. (Tear Heart)
Debrief:
After the story, if you are in the classroom, ask the participants to put their “torn hearts” with their names on each heart around the large heart. Leave this large poster in the classroom for the teacher to post on a wall as a reminder to the children to treat each other in a kind manner. If you are online, have students put their heart some place they can look at to remember the activity and how to treat others in a kind manner.
Use the following questions to guide students in understanding that the story
How did the story show that words can be very harmful and can have effects that are not easy to repair?
How does the non-torn large heart on the poster board compare to the torn paper hearts?
Why is the heart never the same again after we hurt someone with our words or actions?
Closing Activity
Today, we learned new words about feelings. We used those words to discuss how we feel and practiced recognizing different feelings in others while thinking about how feelings lead to our actions.
COME FULL CIRCLE- Open Ended Questions
What new words did you learn today about feelings?
How will being able to better identify your feelings help you when you are feeling emotional?
How will being able to better identify emotions help you to be a better family member/friend/classmate?
How will the Four Awesome Questions help you use this new knowledge about emotions?
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