GRADES K-3
Specific Session Objective
Students will recognize and name emotions they have felt and
recognize the difference between feelings and actions.
Terms
thought feeling/emotion action
Session Materials
list of emotional scenarios
short prepared story with varying emotional levels
Polaroid camera with film (optional)
masking tape
chalkboard and chalk
Session Content
1. Make list on the chalkboard of emotions:
sad, happy, worried, nervous, etc. Ask students to define emotions
on the list. Focus on nuances between definitions of similar emotions.
As definitions are given, ask the student supplying the definition for
a scenario that might cause a person to have this emotion. Ask the
students for a scenario that might cause a person to have this emotion.
Ask the students if any of them have ever felt an emotion that is not yet
on the board, i.e. worried, lonely, nervous. Ask for incidents that
caused these emotions. Using their faces only at first, ask the students
show what emotions might look like as you call them out. Then allow
them to engage the rest of their bodies, asking them to freeze in each
emotion. Spotlight exceptional physical representations of emotions.
If possible, take a picture of three or four students showing each emotion,
and continue the exercise until each student has had their picture taken.
2. Use the following story as a starter (or
a similar one of your own) emphasizing its different emotional levels.
Students will imagine they are you (the leader) as you tell the story in
first person. They are to use their bodies to pantomime the action of the
narrator and the emotion the narrator is feeling while moving freely about
the space:
One day when I was feeling very happy, my class went on a trip
to the circus. As I climbed aboard the school bus, I was very excited
about seeing the circus, and a little nervous about being away from school.
The bus ride was very long, and as I rode I gazed out of the window and
watched birds flying by. This made me feel very peaceful. When
we arrived at the circus, I climbed out of the bus and stepped right in
front of a huge elephant!*
*As you bring the story to its climax, halt
the action by freezing the students. Discuss how the students are
feeling at this very moment (as their character in the story). Then
ask them why they are feeling this way. Do they like feeling this
way and why? What could they do to change the way they are
feeling? (Take a deep breath, be still and quiet, back away from
the elephant, etc.) Continue the pantomime, allowing the student
their choice of action. How did it work to change the way they were
feeling? Bring the story to a close.
3. Establish definitions for thoughts (what
we think), actions (what we do), and emotions (how we feel). Explain
the relationship between thinking, doing and feeling. With the students
still seated in a circle on the floor, present them with these lines of
dialogue (they may also be written on the chalk board):
A. Good morning.
B. Hello.
A. Is this my toy?
B. I think so.
A. Thank you.
B. See you later.
Have the students say the series of lines out loud together
several times, as a group, boys only, girls only, etc., until the sound
of it is very familiar to them. Show the students two lines of masking
tape that you have laid down to represent two adjacent doors. Divide
the class into two groups, “A” and “B” and ask each group to take their
place behind one of the “doors”. Place a toy between the doors, equidistant
from each one. Instruct the students that an “A” person and a “B”
person will come out of the doors at the same time. Before each enters
the scene, the leader will read them a scenario or what has just happened
to them and they will decide how they are feeling and share it with the
class. (For example: “This morning, the President called you to tell
you that you've won the Greatest Kid in the World Award” or “You watched
a scary movie last night in which the monster snuck up on people by waiting
for them outside their front doors”). Using the lines of dialogue,
they will play the scene using the emotions they have derived from the
scenario. The leader can use note cards prepared ahead of time with
scenarios written on them.
Session Assessment
1. Erase the emotions from the board and ask
the students to name the emotions they played with feeling today.
Review any differences between similar emotions that may come up.
2. With regard to the final activity,
ask the students to talk about the emotions that they played. Ask
for volunteers to recall and relate the scenario that make them feel that
way. How did the way they were feeling effect what they did in the
scene?
3. When someone is feeling a negative
emotion, what might they do to change the way they are feeling? What
would happen if they didn't do anything about it?
Developed by Carol Lanoux
GRADES 4-6
Specific Session Objective
Using role-play, students will demonstrate
and practice de-toxing a toxic emotion.
Terms
Toxic emotions - encourage thesaurus use
for anger, jealousy, greed, etc.
Session Materials
8 1/2" X 11" paper, markers, thesaurus
space to make a standing circle with students
Session Content
1. Brainstorm toxic emotions discussed in the text
and/or ones you have experienced.
2. Write one emotion per sheet of paper with no repeats.
Stretch your vocabulary.
3. Place papers in the middle of the circle.
4. The class demonstrates one or two of the toxic
emotions facially to experience the feeling.
Practice vocalizing the feeling
saying, "Have a nice day." (or another phrase)
Optional - dependent upon student skill level
*Ask students to recall three favorite lines from plays or movies
they've seen.
5. One person begins by holding the sign above the
head and saying a phrase (or the line)
demonstrating that toxic emotion.
6. Hand the paper to another student in the circle
who then must demonstrate the same emotion
saying his/her prepared
line.
7. This student may hand the paper to another person
or choose another paper and repeat steps
5 and 6.
8. The game ends when all have taken a turn, all
papers are used or time is up.
Follow-up:
Discuss how the toxic emotions felt. Were
they genuine or performed? How do toxic emotions feel in everyday
life? How could we change the exercise to make it more realistic?
De-toxing Emotions
Discuss how we de-tox our own (and others) toxic
emotions.
Play the game as before, but with these changes:
1. A person starts by stating a sentence that is
expressed in a toxic manner.
2. Another student responds using a response that
will lessen the toxic emotion. (Empathy is a
good place to begin.
If you have discussed active listening, this works as well).
3. After hearing a couple of examples, create an
improvised scene showing a fuller dialogue than
the statements made.
If a particularly good example is provided, break into pairs and have
each pair work with those
statements to create a short scene. Perform for all; discuss the
pitfalls and successes trying
to help de-tox emotions.
Session Assessment
Journal writing is beneficial. Write
about the emotions experienced in the activity and in real life.
Refer to Goleman's Emotional Intelligence Chapter
11
Created by Cari Rodden
GRADES 6-8
Specific Session Objective
Students will use paper dolls of themselves to show
how feelings are layered.
Terms
movement, feelings, perception
Session Materials
Pre-made tape of music, cassette player, paper dolls
(3 per student), markers
Session Content
Warm-up
Use three dramatically different excerpts
from musical scores which explode with feeling. Have the students
move to the music, expressing feelings through body movements. (Suggestion:
use instrumental music only. Words may dictate feelings.)
Discuss the exercise naming the emotions felt during each piece of
music.
Layering Feelings
1. Introduce this section by discussing that there are three
layers of feelings that we will focus on today: how we perceive ourselves,
how we think others perceive us, and how others really perceive us. Discuss
how what we perceive can also become how we feel.
2. On the first paper doll, write how you feel about yourself.
(Adjective emphasis)
3. On the second doll, write what you feel others think about
you.
4. One the third doll, write only your name.
5. Everyone passes their dolls around the room until each
student has written on each doll.
6. Layer the dolls so that a relationship can be made between
what is hidden and what is perceived outwardly.
7. Discuss what you believe is genuine. How do your feelings
about yourself differ or match those of others? Do we share our true
emotions with others?
Other techniques
1. Use butcher paper so that students can trace around each other.
(Mimic the movements from the warm-up creating actions and poses.)
Put the hidden feelings on the back and the outer emotions on the front.
2. Use lunch bags. Students write how they feel about themselves
on slips stapling them in the bag. Other students write on the outside
of the bag.
This exercise is not at all rewarding if students are cruel to each
other. Only use this activity if your class has a respectful attitude
toward one another. Adjust elements making this an emotionally safe
exercise for your students.
Session Assessment
Write a creative paragraph from the inner self talking to the outer
self. What do they have in common?
Alternative: journal about the insight gained from the layered emotions.
Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence, Chapter 3
Created by C. Rodden
GRADES 9-12
Specific session objective
Students will label their emotions and work to control them.
Terms
Self-Awareness
Objective Independent Activity
Session Materials
Appropriate properties
One copy of Sanford Meisner on Acting, by Sanford
Meisner and Dennis Longwell
(Vintage Books, 1987)
Session Content
1. Instructor will be familiar with the objective and the independent
activity exercise designed by Meisner and will have predesigned enough
two person scenarios for each person in the class. In these scenarios,
each students is assigned an “independent activity” ( a demanding physical
task that must be completed by a deadline), an “objective” (something they
want or need from their scene partner) and, possibly, a “secret”, which
will serve to heighten dramatic possibilities. In an example scenario,
partners A and B are roommates at a performing arts high school.
A’s independent activity is to be memorizing a monologue for tomorrow’s
audition. A’s objective is to convince B to drive A to the store
to purchase a new outfit for tomorrow’s audition. When B enters the
room, B’s independent activity is to be packing a backpack for school.
B’s audition is today. B’s objective is to convince A to lend B the
book of audition monologues. With practice and knowledge of the students,
the instructor can design many such scenarios which will work well with
their students.
2. Instructor will break students up into pairs, assigning them
each a scenario. It is important that properties be physically present.
Nothing should be mimed. Students will interact in the improv, which,
as designed by the instructor, should produce conflict. Instructor
will freeze the improv when it appears to have reached an impasse.
3. Students will replay the improv. This time the instructor
will freeze the actors when a point of contention arises and ask “what
are you feeling?” The actor will attempt to label the emotion and
will be coached by the instructor to take a deep breath and will re-enter
the scenario.
4. Continue the exercise until every group has enacted their
improv.
Session Assessment
1. In a post-exercise discussion, ask each class member whether
they felt the conflict was better mediated when the characters were aware
of what they were feeling before they acted.
2. Ask the class to discuss moments which were effective in each
improv. Did identifying emotions prior to expressing the make the
players less likely to become emotionally hijacked?
Relevant References in Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence: pp. 46-48
Designed by M. Armstrong
