Emojis
Learning outcomes:
Students:
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Name the 10 different feelings and emotions on the emoji counters
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Use an emotion word in a sentence
Purpose of learning experience
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Students can build a vocabulary of feelings and emotions and learn to recognise and name emotions in themselves and others.
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Students’ capacity to build confidence expressing feelings and emotions with appropriate verbal and non-verbal language promoting self-regulation.
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Personal statements can start with I feel…, I am…, e.g. I feel proud, I am brave.
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Pronouns can indicate emotions in others. You feel…, she/he feels…, they feel…
Printable: Emoji Sheet
Making connections
Being able to tell other people how you feel is fundamental to children’s wellbeing. Students need to be able to understand and recognise their feelings to build emotional awareness and empathy. Linking feelings and emotions to their own experiences helps them understand themselves better and builds emotional literacy. Students can discuss how emotions influence their behaviour.
For some year levels this is a cross-curricular unit with English and HPE and includes identifying words from First Nations Australians’ languages relevant to a topic. Cross-curriculum priority: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures.
Culture
First Nations Australian societies are diverse and have distinct cultural expressions such as language, customs and beliefs. As First Nations Peoples of Australia, they have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural expressions, while also maintaining the right to control, protect and develop culture as Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property.
Early Years Learning framework
Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators.
Children begin to understand how symbols and pattern systems work
Lesson activity
Emotional people
Plan/implement
Model play
Make a person out of dough or draw a person in the sand.
Choose an emoji and model the single word. For example, ‘happy’.
Model the sentence structure and happy face.
Place the emoji on your person and model the sentence structure ‘She feels happy’.
Encourage the child/ren to make or draw people and hold an emoji up to their face.
Observations / assessment opportunities
What word does the child use when they select an emoji?
Do they name the emotion verbally, show the emotion with a matching facial expression?
Do they use Standard Australian English sentence structure; I am…, he/she is…, or I feel…, he/she feels…?
Language focus
She is <emotion>.
He is <emotion>.
She feels <emotion>.
He feels <emotion>.
Community Languages
Pair children with peers who share the same language to increase confidence. Encourage them to talk about their drawings/ playdough using their preferred language. Show emotions through gesture, facial expression.
Foundation Curriculum alignment
English: AC9EFLA02
explore different ways of using language to express preferences, likes and dislikes
HPE: AC9HPFP03
express and describe emotions they experience
Lesson activity
Guess the emotion
Plan/implement
Students sit in a circle, with a set of emojis face down in middle on the floor.
Model activity.
Take an emoji and look at it. Make a face or use your body to depict the emotion. Students put up their hand if they think they know the name of the emotion. Select a student to call out the word for the emotion. For example, ‘happy’, follow with a sentence, ‘you feel happy’.
Show the counter and respond ‘Yes, I feel happy’ or ‘I am not happy I feel excited.’ The next student in the circle has a turn to take a counter and show the emotion with their face or body.
Observations / assessment opportunities
Does the student respond with appropriate words for the emotions?
Does the student use the word in a Standard Australian English sentence?
Does the student use intonation of voice to represent the emotion?
Resources needed
Emoji sheet or emoji counters
Language focus
You feel <emotion>.
Yes, I feel <emotion>.
I am not <suggested emotion>, I feel <new emotion>.
Community Languages
Hold up each emoji and ask the students to name the emotion in their own language before you place it face down on the floor.
Year 1 Curriculum alignment
English: AC9E1LA08
compare how images in different types of texts contribute to meaning
HPE: AC9HP2P03
identify how different situations influence emotional responses
Lesson activity
How we feel
Plan/implement
Each student selects an emoji and makes a face or uses their body to represent the emotion. Photograph the student making the face and holding the emoji up.
Print the photos or ask the students to draw their own face showing the same emotion as the emoji they selected.
Students compare how images of the same subject; the emoji and their own face show meaning.
Students write or describe for another to write what they are depicting. For example, ‘This is Jarli, he feels sad.’ Or ‘I am Jarli, I feel sad.’ Read the book, with all the students pages, together.
Observations / assessment opportunities
Can others recognise the emotion the student demonstrates with their face or body?
Can the student describe what makes the emotion recognisable?
Does the student write/say a two-part sentence with at least six words, or two sentences with three words?
Language focus
I am <name>. This is <name>.
I feel <emotion>. He/she feels <emotion>.
Community languages
Ask the students to write any of the emotion words they know on their photos or drawings.
Find out the local words for the emotions and include them in the students ‘How we feel book’.
Year 2 Curriculum alignment
English: AC9E2LA09
experiment with and begin to make conscious choices of vocabulary to suit the topic
English: AC9E2LY08
write words legibly and with growing fluency using unjoined upper-case and lower-case letters
Lesson activity
List emotion words
Plan/implement
Give each pair or small group of students 3 to 5 emoji counters.
Ask students to use the emoji as a guide to draw the emotion. Students work together to brainstorm and write as many words as they can think of for each emoji.
Observations / assessment opportunities
Do the students choose words appropriate to the emoji?
Do the students write the words as a list using unjoined lowercase letters?
Language focus
happy, sad, angry, worried, proud, brave, confused, surprised, loved, silly.
Community Languages
Ask the students to include the community language words they can think of in their lists.
Year 3 Curriculum alignment
English: AC9E3LA02
understand how the language of evaluation and emotion, such as modal verbs, can be varied to be more or less forceful
HPE: AC9HP4P01
investigate how success, challenge, setbacks and failure strengthen resilience and identities in a range of contexts
Lesson activity
Why do you feel like that?
Plan/implement
Select an emoji counter and model the language focus. For example, He feels excited. Why is he excited? He might feel excited because he is going fishing.
Provide each student with one or two emoji counters. Explain that they will name the emotion in a sentence and give a reason why the emotion is felt.
Students can write the sentences as a plan for their presentation.
Students can link two or more emojis to build the story. For example, She feels sad because her ice cream fell down. She feels happy because she gets a new one.
Students present their emoji story.
Observations / assessment opportunities
Does the student start the presentation with a question or statement?
Does the student express the emotion clearly with an enthusiastic tone?
Does the student describe an event to appropriately match the emotion?
Does the student draw on an example of personal experience?
Resources needed
Emoji sheet or emoji counters
Pencils and paper
Language focus
He/she feels <emotion>.
Why is he/she <emotion>?
He/she must/might/could feel <emotion> because <description of event>.
Community Languages
Students can present their ‘Why do you feel like that?’ story in their community language.
Talk about ways community words can be used alongside English words for emphasis. Students can present their story in English and use gestures and community language words to highlight important information.