Ask the children to draw a picture either using crayons, coloured pencils or paints.  Move around the class and ask the children questions such as:

What have you drawn?

Why do you think you have drawn that?

What does this mean?

How does this picture make you feel?

Choose some children to come and show their pictures to the class and explain what they have drawn.

Benefits:

Art is a form of expression and creativity.  Allowing children to express themselves through art is a good way for them to share emotions and ideas if they want to.  This activity develops creativity and expression.

Resources:

• Paper
• Crayons, pencils or paint
• Paint brushes
• Water

Sit the children in a circle.  Explain to the children that you have had a stressful morning.  Each stressful occurrence that you discuss, shake the bottle of coke.  For example, your children wouldn’t get ready for school, you couldn’t find your shoes, you were late, your car wouldn’t start, stuck in traffic.  Explain that the bottle of coke is how you feel.  Now pass the bottle around the circle asking the children to tell one thing that may have made them frustrated this morning. Once the bottle has moved around the circle ask one child what they think will happen if they opened the bottle.  Explain that this is how we feel sometimes when things keep going wrong and we feel like we are going to explode just like the coke.  Discuss with the children ways to help them during these times for example practice some meditation, yoga, calming breathing, stop button, timeout, counting, listen to calming music, being more organised.

Benefits:

The children gain an understanding that we all have difficult and frustrating situations at times.  This activity provides children with tools to help deal with negative emotions, improving resilience and reducing anxiety and stress.

Resources:

• Bottle of Coke

Discuss with the children what are emotions, asking them to write down as many emotions as they can.  Talk about how each emotions makes them feel and when do we have these emotions.  Explain to the children that emotions are like clouds they come and go.  One cloud could represent a sad emotion which passes, one cloud could represent anger which passes.  Explain that we all have different emotions and it is good to express how we feel however it is important to know that this is just a moment and this time will pass.

Benefits:

Children feel overwhelmed when they feel particular emotions therefore this activity reminds children that it is okay to feel these emotions but also know that this time will pass.  This helps children build resilience, reducing anxiety.

Resources:

• Paper
• Pen

Place 3 trays at the front of the class with a smiley face, sad face and no facial expression.  Ask the teaching assistant to observe the children coming into the class. Ask each child to place a counter into the tray to express how they feel that day.  This allows teachers to observe how children are feeling and if there are any children needing support that morning.

Benefits:

This activity allows the children to express how they feel and makes teachers aware of any child that may need extra support that day.  It develops children’s expression and gives them the opportunity to gain support if needed.  This will help with self-esteem as children build confidence to express themselves and share feelings with others.

Resources:

• Sad, happy, no facial expression faces
• 3 trays

Ask the children to write a list of emotions on one side of a piece of paper.  Ask the children to share their ideas. 

Ask the children to put their hand up if they ever feel worried or anxious.  This highlights the fact that we all get anxious at times.  Discuss with the children what makes them worried or anxious. 

Ask them to write down on the other side of the paper how does it make them feel inside their body when they feel anxious.  For example butterflies in stomach, sweaty palms, heart beating faster, crying.  Ask the children to share with the class how they feel.

Ask the children to discuss, and write on the board, what they can do to make themselves feel better when they feel like this.  For example mindful colouring, do something they enjoy, play with their pet, listen to music, go outdoors, play an instrument, focus on something else or practice breathing techniques. 

Benefits:

This activity develops children’s self-confidence to help themselves when feeling overwhelmed with emotions.  It allows children to discover for themselves ways to find comfort when they feel anxious, reducing stress and improving resilience.

Resources:

• Paper
• Pen
• Board or IWB

Separate the children into small groups providing each group with an emotion word such as happy, sad, angry, love, peace, calm, grumpy.  Ask the children to discuss the words and answer the questions:

• How does this word make you feel?
• What situations make you feel this emotion?

Ask the children to talk about this with the class and share their experience of these emotions writing key points on the board.  Explain the importance of children expressing themselves and listening to those around them, supporting one another.

Benefits:

This activity gives children an opportunity to express their feelings and encourage them to share their emotions.  It develops their vocabulary and helps them communicate, building self-esteem and improving relationships.

Resources:

• A range of emotions written on separate paper
• Whiteboard or IWB

Discuss with the children how our body feels when we are sad/happy/angry/excited/grumpy.  Use a spider diagram to share the children’s ideas with the class.  Use your own examples of how you feel in your body. 

Benefits:

This activity gives children an opportunity to express their feelings and encourage them to share their emotions.  It develops their vocabulary and helps them communicate, building self-esteem and improving relationships.

Resources:

• Whiteboard or IWB

Using a range of colours ask the children what colour means to them.  For example, show the children the colour red, ask the children

• Is this colour a happy/sad/angry colour?
• What emotion does this colour remind you of?
• Why does this colour remind you of this emotion?
• Does this colour remind you of a particular time in your life or a person?

Following this discussion give each child a colour (small coloured piece of paper).   Choose specific children in the class or ask each child the following questions

• What does that colour mean to you?
• What emotion does this colour remind you of?
• Why does it remind you of this emotion?
• If your colour was a sound what would it be?

Benefits:

This activity gives children an opportunity to express their feelings through colour.  It encourages them to share their emotions and experiences.  It develops their vocabulary and helps them communicate, building self-esteem.

Resources:

• A range of small coloured paper

Provide children with a range of weather symbols for the children to choose from to express how they are feeling.  This can be used at the start and end of a PSED session to identify if the session has improved the child’s anxiety and stress.  For example, using a sunshine for feeling happy, cloud for feeling okay, dark cloud for feeling grumpy and rain cloud for feeling sad the children can circle the weather symbol to demonstrate how they feel. 

Benefits:

This activity lets the children to express how they feel and allows the teacher to evaluate if a PSED lesson has been successful.  This will help with self-esteem as children build confidence to express themselves and share their feelings with others. 

Resources:

• Weather evaluation
• Pencils

Ask the children to sit on the carpet facing you.  Ask the children to show you a grumpy/sad/happy/excited/angry/confused/shocked/laughing face.  Choose children to come to the front and show the class one of these facial expressions.  The children on the carpet have to guess what type of emotion the child is indicating. 

Sit the children in pairs and ask them to face each other.  Shout out a range of emotions and ask the children to show this facial expression to their partner. 

Provide the children with a mirror and ask the children to look at their reflection and show different emotions while looking at their face.

Benefits:

This fun and interactive emotion activity teaches children a range of emotions and how to identify how another person is feeling.  It allows the teacher to recognise how a child is feeling at that moment.  This builds self-confidence, relationships, turn taking, patience and self-expression.

Resources:

• Mirrors

Interactive worry plaques can be bought from eBay or Amazon.  The aim of the plaque is to allow children to express their worries and then the angels take the worries away.  The child presses their hand onto the plaque.  As the plaque turns red the child tells the plaque their worry.  After a couple of seconds the plaques turns green and the worries have been taken away.  Explain to the children the importance of expressing any worries and telling a trusted adult.

Benefits:

The plaque is an interactive and fun activity for children to let go of any worries they may be holding onto.  It is a visual aid to support anxiety and stress and improve sleep as children let go of their worries. 

Resources:

• Interactive worry plaque

Using a range of emotion puppets or dolls to create storytelling to help children deal with difficult situations in life.  For example, divorce, a new baby in the family, moving house, moving school.  Tell a story with a happy outcome using the puppets or dolls as a prop explaining that any changes in life can be worrying.  You can use literature or create your own story.  Include the children, asking them questions about what happened when they were going through this situation and how they feel now.  Each doll or puppet represents a different emotion with diverse facial expressions.  The puppets or dolls can be bought from eBay or Amazon.

Benefits:

This activity teaches the children a range of emotions.  It provides an opportunity for the teacher to discuss different life situations that the children may find difficult.  It develops resilience, confidence, reduces anxiety and reassures the children that although a change can be worrying once we get used to it we feel better.

Resources:

• Emotion dolls or puppets
• Literature