Using your face when you act out a story helps share the story with your audience. You can practice using your face, and exploring emotions with your students.
- Have everyone sit in a circle. If you like, you can start by reading a picture book about emotions
, or just hop right into the game.
- Start with a feeling that everyone knows, like happy or sad. Make a happy face together. Make a sad face together. Make a silly face together.
- Talk about the different parts of your face, see if you can engage your nose when you make a sad face. How about your forehead? What does your forehead do when you’re sad?
- With older children, or if this is a repeat game for you children, try “passing” your face around the circle. One child makes a sad face to the person to her left. He makes a sad face to the person to his left. And so on around the circle.
- Played with repetition, children will begin to find new ways to express emotions with their faces, and will also begin to pass more varied emotions.