Develop Self-Awareness and Empathy Through an Understanding of Feelings

From a young age, children learn and use simple emotional vocabulary to describe how they are feeling: sad, happy, angry. But do they know how to identify these feelings in the people around them?

Learning to understand the facial expressions and body cues that tend to accompany each emotional state is a fundamental social-emotional skill. Recognising emotions in others enables us to empathise with their current plight, then respond accordingly.

This set of nine posters has been designed to educate younger students about these key body cues. Students can refer to the posters in an effort to understand what different emotional states look and feel like, thus increasing their levels of self-awareness and empathy. The emotions included in this poster set are: happy, sad, angry, proud, scared, calm, nervous, excited and frustrated. 

By viewing this classroom display regularly, students will not only increase their emotional vocabulary but will also come to recognise the facial and body cues that accompany each state.

How to Make the Most of This Emotions Classroom Display

This set of posters has been created to support social-emotional learning in your classroom. You may wish to use it in the following ways:

1. Print the posters on A3 paper and display them in your classroom as a reminder of what each emotional state might look like when experienced by a classmate.
2. Use the display as a stimulus for a group discussion. Ask the students to explore what types of situations might make them experience each emotion.
3. Use the display as a means of checking in with how the students are feeling when they arrive at school each morning.

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This resource was created by Kirsten Sowers, a Teach Starter collaborator.