Nursery and primary 1 activity

Talk to your child about their emotions. Ask them to share what makes them feel happy, sad, excited, etc.

Ask your child to use a mirror so they can see how they look when you ask them to show a range of different emotions. Ask them what they look like when they are happy, sad, excited, etc?

Take turns making and naming all of the emotional faces of which you can think.

Play a version of musical statues where you play some music, and, when the music stops, you each pull an ‘emotion’ face. Try to guess the face pulled.

It may be helpful to use the materials on Go! Gaelic about feelings.

Primary 2, 3, and 4 activity

Talk to your child about different facial expressions and how they can give clues to how we are feeling. Take turns to demonstrate different emotions, using facial expressions. For example, ‘Show me an excited face.’ You could use a mirror so your child can see their own expressions.

Encourage your child to share what makes them feel a range of emotions. ‘I feel excited when……’ or ‘I feel sad when….’ They could draw a picture of their different facial expressions and write a sentence for each.

Ask your child to gather a range of photographs, newspapers, magazines, or picture books. Look for pictures of people’s faces. Can you find different facial expressions?

Help your child to identify the feelings that go with the expression in each picture. Ask your child why the person in the picture might feel that way. Are there clues in the picture or text?

Primary 5, 6, and 7 activity

Talk with your child about emotions, and how our facial expressions change depending on how we feel. Think of as many different emotions as you can (angry, shy, sad, excited). Try to show these emotions using different facial expressions. Look in a mirror to see what happens to your face. Pay attention to your eyes, eyebrows, mouth, etc.

Ask your child about how their voice and body language might also give clues to how they are feeling. For example, ‘How do we speak when we are excited?’ ‘How do we speak when we are angry?’ ‘What do we do with our hands when we are angry?’

Try using your voice, face and body movements to show how you are feeling. For example, ask the question, ‘Is the dog in the house?’ Can you say this as if you are excited/angry/scared? How did your voice/face change? Did you use your body in any particular way? (For example, hands on hips when you were angry.) Encourage your child to guess how you are feeling, and then ask your child to take a turn.

Choose a character (person or cartoon) to watch on television or in a film. Take notes about how they use their face, voice and body to express their emotions. Use the pause or rewind function if you can, to capture as much detail as possible.