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Title: Exploring Emotions
Age Range: 8-12 years
Duration: 60 minutes
Objective: To explore different emotions through drama and creative expression.
Materials Needed: Paper, pens/pencils, a large open space for movement, a music player
Warm-Up (5 minutes)
- Have the children stand in a circle.
- Explain that the warm-up activity is called “Emotion Tag.”
- One person will start by saying an emotion, such as “happy,” and then tag someone else in the circle.
- The person who was tagged must then express that emotion through movement, sound, or facial expression.
- The game continues with different emotions being called out and expressed until everyone in the circle has had a turn.
Activity 1 – Emotion Portraits (20 minutes)
- Give each child a piece of paper and ask them to fold it in half.
- Instruct the children to draw a self-portrait on one side of the paper.
- On the other side of the paper, ask them to draw their face expressing a certain emotion, such as anger, sadness, or joy.
- Once the portraits are complete, have the children share their emotion portraits with the group and explain why they chose that particular emotion.
Activity 2 – Emotion Walk (15 minutes)
- Ask the children to stand in a line.
- Play music and instruct the children to walk around the room, expressing a certain emotion through their body language and facial expressions.
- After a few minutes, stop the music and call out a new emotion for the children to express.
- Repeat the activity with different emotions.
Activity 3 – Emotion Scenes (20 minutes)
- Divide the children into pairs.
- Assign each pair an emotion, such as jealousy, fear, or excitement.
- Instruct the pairs to create a short scene that portrays their assigned emotion without using any dialogue.
- After a few minutes of rehearsal time, have the pairs perform their scenes for the group.
- Encourage the other children to guess the emotion being portrayed.
Closing (5 minutes)
- Gather the children together in a circle.
- Ask them to share one new thing they learned about emotions from the workshop.
- Remind them that emotions are a normal and important part of life, and that expressing them in healthy ways can help us to feel better.
- Thank the children for participating and dismiss them.
