Emotions & Feelings ESL Lesson

OBJECTIVE & OVERVIEW

This emotions & feelings ESL lesson plan provides activities, PDF worksheets, and digital materials designed for beginner A1 students. In this lesson, students will:

• Discuss some questions about emotions and feelings
• Learn vocabulary on basic emotions and feelings
• Watch a music video of a man describing his emotions
• Talk about what makes them happy, sad, mad, tired, relaxed, etc.

PREVIEW & DISCUSSION

In the first part of this emotions & feelings ESL lesson plan, students describe the emotions or feelings that several people are showing in images. These include emotions like happy, sad, nervous, mad, sad, hungry, and excited.

Then, students proceed to discuss a few questions about feelings and emotions.

In the final activity of the preview section, there are some vocabulary words and images. This part is designed to prepare students for the video. These include vocabulary words like chef, snail, cereal, and tummy.

VIEWING ACTIVITY

In the second part of this ESL lesson on emotions and feelings, students watch a music video. In the video, a man sings about how he is always hungry, happy, and sad. In the video, he talks about a type of food that makes him happy, and a type of food that makes him sad and mad.

In the first listening activity, there are some multiple choice questions. Students choose the correct answers based on the lyrics.

In the next activity, students complete the lyrics in the second verse of his song.

The viewing activity concludes with a matching activity. In it, students match the first part of the lyrics with the second part.

DISCUSSION & GRAMMAR

After students watch the video, there are a few discussion questions about the music video.

The next part of the lesson is focused on a grammatical structure:

to make + [someone] + [emotion]

In the activity, students read two descriptions under some images. The images show people doing activities and the emotions they feel. For example, in the first image, a man is eating cereal and he looks happy. Students write an adjective that comes to mind to describe the emotions. For example, they write:

“Abby is eating cereal. Eating cereal makes her happy.”

In the third part, students do a similar activity. They look at images of people doing a variety of activities. They describe the activities in addition to the emotions they feel. For example, students produce sentences like:

“Sean is skydiving. Skydiving makes him excited.”

LET’S TALK FEELINGS

In the first option, students complete some prompts in questions about feelings. These include prompts like:

• What makes you _________ ?
• What _________ makes you _________ ?
• Does _________ make you _________ ?

Students then engage in a conversation and exchange responses using these questions they prepared.

There is a second activity option as well. They can choose a few activities/situations from a list. They describe how each one makes them feel. For example: going to a party, traveling to a new place, and cold and rainy weather.

BENEFITS OF USING THIS EMOTIONS & FEELINGS ESL LESSON

Real-Life Context

The lesson includes a fun music video that is simple to follow along with for beginner students.

Encourages Discussion

This lesson promotes discussion about personal feelings and experiences, which encourages a communicative classroom environment.

Visual Learning

There are a variety of images used throughout the lesson of people showing different emotions. This makes it easier for students to learn new emotions.

Grammar Practice

The lesson focuses on useful grammar structures in a fun and engaging way, helping students improve their sentence formation.