SEAL - How do you know how people are feeling?

Lisa Benbow, a LSA at Pen-Y-Dre High School leads the year 7 class through a series of drama activities.

This lesson at at Pen-Y-Dre is introduced by Lisa Benbow with a mind map, where the class note what can be ascertained by looking at someone. They discuss how a persons’ feelings are evident via body language, gesture, facial expression and tone. From this the class are then given pictures of faces depicting different emotions. In groups the children decide what they notice first from these and using cut outs they build up a mosaic-style picture starting with the most prominent feature. In a game the children are then given the opportunity to explore emotions by making different faces. Next, in pairs the children are asked to look for words for “comfortable” and “uncomfortable” feelings hidden around the classroom. Upon finding a word they must act it out until they find a new one. This activity aims to help create a better understanding of oneself and in particular of our emotions in learning how to recognise them.