Help students in grades 2–3 build emotion vocabulary and self-awareness with a counselor-led lesson, an interactive picture-choice activity, and a printable emotion-sorting worksheet. Students identify feelings by name and connect emotions with facial expressions and body language.

What's included

• A lesson plan with an objective, materials, discussion prompts, procedures, and an assessment focus.
• An interactive PowerPoint activity titled “How Does This Emotion Look?” Students choose the picture that best describes the emotion shown on the screen.
• A printable worksheet for sorting emotion words into positive and negative categories, with cut-out emotion labels.
• A PowerPoint show version of the interactive activity.

How to use it

Begin with a class discussion about familiar emotions and how feelings may show through facial expressions, body language, or physical sensations. Invite students to practice making facial expressions, then use the interactive activity for students to take turns identifying emotions. The worksheet offers a hands-on follow-up: students cut out emotion words and sort them into the worksheet’s two categories. Chart paper and a marker are suggested for the lesson discussion but are not listed as included files.

Skills and setting

This resource focuses on recognizing and naming a range of emotions, including excited, worried, embarrassed, scared, happy, angry, sad, proud, confused, jealous, thankful, and relaxed. It supports self-awareness and emotion vocabulary practice. Use it for an elementary classroom lesson, school counseling, or a small-group discussion. The worksheet’s positive/negative sorting can also prompt conversation about how students experience different feelings.

Format notes

The activity is provided as a PowerPoint presentation and as a PowerPoint show. The worksheet is printable and includes cut-and-paste directions. The activity directions ask students to click a picture, so use the interactive presentation format for that response. The resource files are in English.