Lesson 01 — My Feelings This Year

Learners look back over the year, remember feelings they felt, and describe one feeling from the year using a word, a drawing, or a movement.

D01 P1: Emotional & Social Awareness D01.S1 45 minutes Draft

Objectives

D01.S1.K.02 Describe a feeling using words, a drawing, or a movement.

Essential question

What feelings did I have this year, and how can I show them?

feelingrememberproudcalmgrown

Materials

Standard materials

Feeling face cards · 1 set Happy, sad, angry, scared, calm faces (reused from earlier in the year)
Crayons and paper · per learner
Your portfolio of work from this year · per learner The learner's own collected drawings and work to look back through

Low-tech / no-cost

Voice and body Act out each feeling with a face and a movement; no cards needed
A shared class memory circle Recall together the feelings the class felt this year, spoken aloud

Enriched / lab & device

Laminated feeling face cards · 1 set per pair Durable cards for sorting and matching feelings to memories
A recording device · 1 per group To capture each learner telling one feeling from the year and why

Works in different contexts

large-group Hold up each feeling face card and make the face together; let each child take one turn naming a feeling they felt this year
self-directed A learner looks back through their own portfolio alone and draws or acts out one feeling from the year to show a grown-up
outdoor-only Find a sky, shadow, plant, or wind that matches a feeling from the year and show it with a word or movement
multi-age Older learners help younger ones label their feeling drawings and listen as each child tells their memory

Seven labeled feeling faces — happy, sad, angry, scared, proud, lonely, and excited — each with a different mouth and eye shape, varied skin tones, one pair of glasses, and one hearing aid, captioned that every feeling is welcome and none is wrong.

Lesson 1 — My Feelings This Year

Summary

Learners look back over the year and remember the feelings they felt — happy, sad, proud, scared, calm, and more. They choose one feeling from the year and describe it using a word, a drawing, or a movement, noticing how much they have grown.

Objectives

Describe a feeling using words, a drawing, or a movement. (D01.S1.K.02)

Connection

Everyone feels many feelings in a year — happy, sad, proud, scared, calm, and more. Today you look back at your year and tell how you felt, using a word, a drawing, or a movement. Remembering your feelings helps you see how much you have grown.

Materials

Feeling face cards (happy, sad, angry, scared, calm)
Crayons and paper
Your portfolio of work from this year

Preparation

Gather the feeling face cards used earlier in the year.
Have each learner’s portfolio (or a small pile of their own work) ready to look back through.
Arrange a circle for gathering and sharing.

Facilitator note

This lesson is written to the learner (“you”). This is a reflective close to the year, not a test. Help each learner recall feelings from across the year — their own, not a “correct” answer. Every feeling is welcome; there are no right or wrong feelings. Honor that families and cultures express feelings differently, and let each child show their feeling in the way that feels natural to them.

Procedure

Gather (5 min). Sit comfortably. Think back over your year — all the days from the start of school until now.
Feelings memory walk (10 min). Look at each feeling face card. Make each face together. Which feelings do you remember feeling this year? Happy? Sad? Proud? Scared? Calm? Point or name each one you remember.
Choose one feeling (5 min). Pick one feeling you had this year. Think of the time you felt it. What happened? Where were you? Who was with you?
Show it (15 min). Describe your feeling in one of three ways: a word, a drawing, or a movement. You can draw the time you felt it, or act the feeling out with your whole body.
Share (5 min). Share with a partner or the class. Say or show the feeling and, if you like, the memory that goes with it.
Close (5 min). Feelings come and go, and they change. You felt many feelings this year — and you are still growing.

Differentiation

Support: Offer two feeling faces to choose from, and model a word and a gesture to go with each.
Extension: Invite learners to draw two feelings from the year and tell what changed between them.

Assessment

Formative (observation): Can the learner name a feeling they felt this year and describe it with a word, drawing, or movement?
Artifact (portfolio): The feeling drawing or a photo of the movement, kept in the learner’s portfolio as a record of the year.

Resources

CASEL SEL Framework (foundational competencies): https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/