Duration: 25 minutes
SPIRIT Skills:
- Emotional awareness, regulation and communication
- Empathy
Brief Description:
Children sit in a circle with their emotion creations (maps or faces) in front of them. One at a time, they present their work to the group, explaining why they chose specific items for each emotion. The rest of the group listens and may ask respectful questions or share if they’ve had similar feelings or associations.
How does this develop particular SPIRIT skills
- Empathy – by listening to others’ emotional perspectives and experiences
- Emotional awareness – by articulating personal emotional connections
- Communication – by using descriptive language and explaining abstract feelings.
What do we want to achieve regarding SPIRIT skill development (student understanding and/or behaviour)?
- Increase confidence in expressing emotions to others
- Strengthen respectful listening and emotional validation
- Develop curiosity and openness toward others’ experiences.
Academic/Curriculum Objective connection
- Language Arts – speaking, listening, vocabulary building
Materials and tools needed for implementation
- Emotion creations (from Stage 4)
- Optional: a talking object (stone, leaf, etc.) to take turns speaking.
Preparation notes
- Set group expectations for respectful listening and no judgment
- Model a short example first if needed
- Encourage curiosity over correction.
Guided Questions
- What does this item represent to you?
- Have you felt this way recently?
- Did anyone choose a similar object for a different emotion?
Stage Debriefing Questions (Optional)
- How did it feel to share your emotions with the group?
- What surprised you about your classmates’ presentations?
Tips and Tricks for dealing with stage challenges
- Help shy children by offering to co-present or summarize for them
- Reinforce group norms if students interrupt or laugh inappropriately
- Validate all emotional expressions, even if they seem “small” or surprising.