Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

20 minutes

Explore: Feeling emotions

20+ minutes

Discover: Understanding emotions

20+ minutes

Thrive: Podcast creation

Explore: Feeling emotions

Step 1

Announce that today’s lesson is about recognising emotions. To get started, ask students to form small groups and brainstorm as many different emotions as possible. Provide groups with markers and butcher’s paper to record their answers. Ask students to identify how they are currently feeling and share their answers with their group.

Examples:

Sadness, joy, nervousness, fear, jealousy, happiness, excitement, anger, frustration, disappointment, shame, embarrassment, hope, loneliness and surprise.

Step 2

Let them know they’ll explore their emotions further by participating in a movement-based game. Before providing any additional information, ask students to reflect on how they feel about participating in a game and encourage them to identify any shifts in mindset or mood.

Step 3

In preparation for the game, you will need to seek out or set up a four-square court using 5 plastic cones (one for each corner and one in the centre).

Use the below instructions to explain the rules of the game ‘Shuffle’:

The aim of the game is to maintain a corner position for as long as possible.
5 students play at a time; 1 person stands in the centre and the others in the 4 corners. The remaining students should line up and be ready to rotate in.
The game starts when the person in the centre shouts, “Shuffle.” When players hear this word, all players (including the centre player) run to a corner/cone. No-one is allowed to move to the centre position, and players who began in a corner cannot stay on the same corner. This will result in 2 players ending up at the same cone.
If 2 students arrive at the same corner/cone, they must play rock paper scissors to determine the winner. The student who wins remains in the game while the other student rotates out and joins the back of the line.
Whoever is waiting at the front of the line enters the game and takes the centre position. The person entering the game will always begin in the centre position.
The new centre player shouts “shuffle”, and the steps repeat until everyone has had a turn (ideally 2 rotations into the game).

Once everyone has had a turn, debrief the game as a class.

Use the following questions to prompt discussion:

How did you feel before, during and after the game?
Did your emotions change at any point? What caused the change?
How might someone’s emotions impact their gameplay?
How might someone’s awareness of their emotions impact their gameplay?
How did your emotions impact your gameplay? Is there anything you’d do differently if you played again?

Provide the following explanation to assist their thinking:

Many of you will have experienced a range of emotions whilst playing the game - both positive and negative. It’s important to consider how these emotions impacted your thoughts and decisions during and afterwards. In real-life situations, sometimes it’s difficult to practise self-awareness in the heat of the moment, but we can always practise self-reflection after an event has taken place. While we can’t always control what happens to us, we can learn to control how we respond to situations.

Discover: Understanding emotions

Step 1

Ask students to form small groups and identify a common emotion and behaviour that could occur for each of the following scenarios (for example, about to sit an exam. Emotion: Nervous. Behaviour: Cannot focus).

About to sit an exam.
Receiving a high score/mark on a project.
Finding out a friend is talking about you behind your back.
Receiving a compliment.
Not being invited to a friend’s party.
Making a new friend.
Being lied to.
Discovering your favourite author just released a new book.
Trying a sport for the first time.

Step 2

Next, ask students to identify some scenarios that would typically evoke strong emotions. Encourage them to come up with a list that is relevant and common among young people.

Use the following dot points to prompt ideas:

Stressful situations
Life decisions and transitions
Missed opportunities
Unexpected changes

Step 3

Have groups select up to 5 scenarios, then answer the following questions for each:

What are some typical emotions you’d expect to see or experience?
What are some typical behaviours you’d expect to see or experience?
What strategies could be used to help during this situation?
What strategies could be used to help after this situation has occurred?

Examples:

Breathing exercises
Focusing on the next step
Writing a pros and cons list
Seeking help or guidance from a friend or mentor
Reminding yourself of the facts of the situation
Regular exercise and eating well
Drinking water
Developing a positive mantra to assist with shifting your mindset
Not suppressing the emotion and acknowledging its existence
Labelling the emotion to understand it better

Provide the following explanation to assist their thinking:

These strategies are important tools to help build resilience. Emotions can serve us positively and can act as guideposts. For example, when nervousness is present, this could be a signpost that the situation or task may be important to us. When we feel overly worried or fearful, this could be a signpost that we feel unsafe.

Step 4

Explain that students will work in pairs to create a podcast targeting young people. The podcast's purpose is to provide strategies to help listeners recognise and manage their emotions and behaviours during emotionally heightened times.

Display the checklist on the Podcast Planning worksheet to assist students in understanding the task.

The following needs to be included:

An intro and outro that introduces the name of the podcast and the purpose of the episode.

Introduction of podcast hosts.
Strategies for young people to support their wellbeing.
A discussion of the importance of emotions and how emotions can impact decisions.
Real-world examples.

Teacher note: Give students time to plan, research and write their podcast episode. If time permits, dedicate a whole lesson (approx. 60 minutes) to this task.

Thrive: Podcast creation

Step 1

Once students have finalised their podcast script, they can record, edit and export their episodes.

Step 2

Bring students’ attention to the Promotion Task on the Podcast Planning worksheet and ask them to create the following to assist with distribution:

An icon to represent their podcast.
Show notes to give a brief outline of the key messages.
Links to websites that offer additional support or tools for young people.
1-2 Instagram posts incorporating visuals and text to promote the podcast.

Step 3

Using the promotional material they’ve developed, students can present and share their ideas with their classmates or the school community.

Step 4

To wrap up the lesson, ask students to identify how they could utilise the strategies spoken about in their podcasts - encourage them to give real examples rather than generalised responses.

Teacher note: Give students time to record and listen to each others’ podcasts. If time permits, dedicate 1 or 2 lessons (approx. 120 minutes) to cover both tasks. Spotify for Podcasters is an easy-to-use, simple and free app for students to record on.

Skills: Exploring Emotions

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