PYP How, Where, Who, Share! Teacher Guide

6. Who We Are

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Me and My Emotions

Everyone has emotions with different ways to manage them.

  • CONNECTION: understand that emotions can impact our lives.
  • PERSPECTIVE: know that everyone has emotions.
  • RESPONSIBILITY: learn strategies to control emotions.
  • THINKING: why we have emotions and how they can impact our lives.
  • RESEARCH: how artists reflect emotions in their art.
  • COMMUNICATION: how we can discuss emotions with other people.
  • SOCIAL: how emotions can affect or be affected by others around us.
  • SELF-MANAGEMENT: how we can use our emotions in a positive way.

Introduction

There are some great books about emotions, which would be handy to have for this chapter. You could start the chapter by sharing a variety of books with the class. Afterwards, place each book in the centre of a large piece of paper (or photocopy the front cover of the book and stick in the middle of the paper) and allow children time to go around to each book and write around the outside which emotions were represented in the book.

This could form a great first display for the chapter and lead to group discussions about the different types of emotions and if they are positive or negative.

  • Tip – 'The Colour Monster' by Anna Llamas is a great book to introduce this topic.

The start of this chapter is a great time to introduce yoga to the children. You could incorporate some yoga into your timetable each day to give children an example of how to regulate their emotions. There are lots of good examples of yoga on the internet, such as Cosmic Kids Yoga, which is specifically aimed at children. 

Question 2 (p. 74): Listing emotions

Discuss with children how the rollercoaster picture made them feel. Were there similar emotions? Start listing all the emotions the children say – this will help them on the next question.

Remember to emphasize at this stage that it is perfectly fine to feel a different emotion than someone else.

Question 3 (p. 74): Emotion mind map

This activity is a good way to demonstrate visible thinking. You could create a mind map together as a class to gather all of the children’s ideas.

Question 4 (p. 75): Positive and negative sounds

  • Tip – before this lesson, collate a range of sounds. For example, ocean waves, car alarm, birds tweeting, a cat purring, etc.

Before completing the table on page 75, sit all the children down and get them to close their eyes. Explain that you will play them a range of sounds and they need to put their thumb up if they think it is a positive sound or thumb down if they think it is a negative sound. Emphasize that there is no right or wrong answer as everyone will feel differently.

Question 5–8 (p. 76): Representing emotion

Discuss with children which aspects of the line makes them associate it with a certain emotion.

  • Does a pointy corner mean anger?
  • Does irregularity mean confusion?
  • Does this mean shapes can be linked to emotions? Does a triangle feel differently to a circle, and would this change if the shapes were different colours?

Questions 9 & 10 (p. 77): A calm room

Before children come into the room, create a relaxing environment. Depending on the children, this could be low lights, warm temperature/blankets, calm music, and pillows or beanbags on the floor (you could ask them to bring these in from home for the day).

Explain to children before they enter that they are to take three deep breaths before going into the room. Then they are to look around, take in the surroundings and think about how it makes them feel. Once they have found somewhere to sit or lie down, ask the children to close their eyes. After a short amount of time, ask children to open their eyes and ask them some questions. 

  • How did the room make them feel?
  • What differences did they notice?
  • How are these differences helping to create a calm environment?

Children can stay seated in their calm spaces whilst they design their own calm room on page 77.

Questions 11–15 (pp. 78–79): Mood monsters

For this lesson, provide different materials for your students to use to make their mood monsters. Encourage them to think about how the material reflects the mood they are trying to show. Materials could include:

  • Modelling clay
  • Leaves and pinecones
  • Cardboard and paper
  • Building blocks
  • Felt and wool
  • Vegetables
  • Anything else!

Questions 16–19 (pp. 79–81): Talking about emotions

Discuss with children how emotions can affect you in a positive and negative way. How does this affect not only themselves but others around them? Be sure to discuss positive emotions, as well as negative.

Explain that certain activities can help them to calm down. Ask the children if any feelings make their heart beat faster?

  • Show children how to locate their pulse in their neck or wrist. Get children to run quickly on the spot for 30 seconds. This is to increase their heart rate. Then ask everyone to sit down and locate their pulse. Ask children to close their eyes and start taking deep breaths, count in and out with them. After a minute or two, ask children how they feel, how is their pulse doing? What effect did the deep breaths have on their pulse and feelings?
  • Discuss other ways children find to stay calm or activities they do to calm down.

Question 20 (p. 82): How to control emotions

Children are given the opportunity to reach different ways to control their emotions. They are free to present their research in a way of their choice – remind them that there is no right or wrong way!

Questions 21–23 (pp. 83–84): Jackson Pollock

Before the lesson, print or display some examples of Jackson Pollock to show the children. Explain that he was an abstract artist, so he wasn’t trying to make paintings that looked like anything. He was trying to express emotions and feelings through his art.

Allow children time to find different artworks by Pollock. Can they find one they like and explain why they like it? Show children a video of Pollock painting to understand the scale of his paintings and the technique he used.

Question 24 (p. 84): Jackson Pollock

Children are given time to create their own Pollock-inspired art (on a much smaller scale!).

  • What emotions are they going to try to portray in their art?
  • How can they do this?
  • What colours will they use and why? (Remind them of the work they did on colours and lines earlier on in the chapter.)
  • Tip – children could make their paintings on paper instead of in their workbook. Once the children have finished, you could encourage them to title their work in order to make a class gallery and allow children the chance to give peer feedback.
  • EMOTION CARDS: Create a set of cards that have different emotions written on them. The children should draw facial expressions for the card they choose. Can their partner guess the emotion from the expression they drew? Emotions could be: Happy, Sad, Angry, Scared, Confused, Tired, Disgusted, Amused, Hopeful, Adoring, Worried, Bored, Calm, Excited, Surprised, Shocked, Horrified, Relieved.
  • Children can spend time logging their different emotions throughout one day. They can then create a timetable/chart the next day, showing a timeline of their emotions. Children can draw these as facial expressions (using the expressions from their emotion cards) or a mix of words and pictures. This activity could also be extended to a week.

Reflection (p. 87)

Allow children time to complete the reflection at the end of the chapter. This is a great opportunity to discuss with the children what they have learnt now and what their favourite part of the chapter was. Remind them to look back at the questions they asked at the start. Can they answer them now?

Give children lesson time to answer any questions they haven’t covered in the chapter. If all of their questions have been answered, children could delve deeper into a particular part of the chapter they found interesting