Identifying an increasing range of emotions and feelings in ourselves and others

Why is this important?
Facial expressions convey numerous and complex emotional states and we begin to infer another person’s feelings by watching how they react/feel (from happiness, sadness, anxiety, etc.). They are an important part of emotional intelligence and link closely to being able to make inferences.

What to do

• In pairs or a small group, act out scenarios by allocating roles: a scene in a shop perhaps – a long queue, an annoyed customer, etc.
• Encourage children to work out feelings from gestures, tone of voice, body language and facial expression.
• Use illustrated stories or composite pictures: look at the scene and then work out the feelings of the characters (e.g. a messy bedroom discovered by Mum! ‘Look at her face, how does she feel?’).