BIG FEELINGS – Lesson 1: Meet the Feelings Gang

Help children begin their social and emotional learning journey with this FREE stand-alone lesson from the Big Feelings curriculum.

In this engaging lesson, children meet five memorable characters:

Happy Monkey
Sad Penguin
Angry Dragon
Nervous Mouse
Calm Koala

Through colourful illustrations, discussion activities and simple games, children learn to:

Recognise different emotions
Identify facial expressions and body language
Understand emotional cues in themselves and others
Develop emotional vocabulary
Explore the idea that everybody has feelings

Activities include:

Meet the Feelings Gang
Copy the expression game
Freeze and act out emotions
Discussion prompts and reflection
Student workbook activities
Colouring and drawing opportunities

This lesson works perfectly as:

A stand-alone SEL lesson
A transition or back-to-school activity
A PSHE / wellbeing lesson
An introduction to emotional literacy
A nurture group activity

Children explore emotions in a safe, playful and age-appropriate way while building the foundations for empathy, self-awareness and emotional regulation.

Included in this free sample:
Illustrated PowerPoint lesson
Matching student workbook pages
Character activities

This resource is Lesson 1 from the complete Big Feelings Social & Emotional Learning Unit.

The full unit includes 8 lessons exploring:

Happiness and helpful thoughts
Sadness and loneliness
Anger and calming down
Worry and bravery
Mindfulness and self-regulation
Kindness and empathy
Reflection and celebrating strengths

Everybody has big feelings.

We can learn what they mean.

And we can learn what to do with them.