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Teaching Activities

Need some ideas on how to teach students about emotions? Here’s a list of different activities related to emotion self-awareness, emotion self-management, perceiving emotion and use of emotions – the four sub-skills related to emotional intelligence. All activities are based off research articles, and are free for you to use, revise and adapt tailored for your target audience. All handouts come with full step-by-step instructions, answer keys where appropriate, along with the source reference article that the activity is based on.

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Teaching Activities – Read Me First.

Read this documentation for a guide on how to make the best use of the activities listed here.

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Index of All Activities.

An index of all activities listed on this page, grouped by subskill, activity time, level of self-disclosure and difficulty.

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References and Bibliography.

Supporting references and bibliography for all activities.

Emotions and their Functions

What functions do our emotions serve? This simple exercise helps participants understand the links between discrete emotions and their functions.

Instructions
Participant Handout
Answer Scheme

Seeing Faces

Our brains have a peculiar habit of seeing faces in things that, well, aren’t faces to begin with. Use this activity to highlight this particular quirk, and to demonstrate how emotions are communicated via facial expressions.

Instructions
Participant Handout

Getting into Flow

Flow states are experiences of psychological immersion, and are often positive emotional experiences that can stave off rumination. Use a simple coloring activity here and see if it helps you get into a state of flow.

Instructions
Participant Handout

Sketching Your Emotions

What might your emotions look like – and what colour will they be? This exercise helps show some links between emotions and physiological (i.e. bodily) responses.

Instructions
Participant Handout
Reference Handout

Identifying Basic Emotions

This simple exercise helps participants identify and list the six basic emotions.

Instructions
Participant Handout
Answer Scheme

Managing Worries

It helps to identify elements of a worrisome situation – things within, or beyond your control, in order to manage unpleasant emotions stemming from uncertainty. This exercise also helps participants from ruminating or catastrophizing events that have yet come to pass.

Instructions
Participant Handout

Relating with Empathy

Relating with empathy helps us see, and appreciate the emotions experienced by others, and is an important skill in cultivating emotional intelligence. This interactive exercise introduces empathy to participants, and provides tips on how to listen with empathy.

Instructions
Participant Handout

Cultivating Resonant Relationships

Meaningful, healthy relationships can help us build resilience and provide a buffer against unpleasant emotions. Use this self-reflection exercise to outline your resonant relationship network.

Instructions
Participant Handout

Reappraising Failure

Failures, setbacks and mistakes are emotionally unpleasant, but we can learn from them. Use this exercise to help participants realize that failures can be excellent resources for self-improvement.

Instructions
Participant Handout A
Participant Handout B - Case Study

Influencing with Emotion

Part of being influential – and charismatic is knowing another person’s emotions and making appeals to others’ feelings. This activity helps participants see how, and why emotional appeals work.

Instructions
Participant Handout

Coaching – Compliance and Compassion

Coaching with compliance and coaching with compassion are two different approaches to helping others develop. Use this activity to help participants see the difference between these two coaching approaches.

Instructions
Participant Handout A – Compliance
Participant Handout B – Compassion

Setting SMART, Motivating Goals

Effective goals are also energizing, motivating ones. Learning to set SMART goals helps with driving intention, action and persistence towards a desirable outcome.

Instructions
Participant Handout A
Participant Handout B – Example

Letters of Gratitude

Writing letters of gratitude is a classic, well-supported approach to countering the effects of unpleasant emotions, build resilience, and enhance significant personal relationships. This simple writing exercise shows participants how to write such letters.

Instructions
Participant Handout

Identifying Flow Activities

What activities can you use to get into flow? Being immersed in, and engrossed in an activity you find intrinsically pleasurable can yield positive psychological benefits. Why not use this activity to identify and engage in flow activities?

Instructions
Participant Handout

Black and White Thinking

Anger can bias us towards thinking in absolutes – one person is to be blamed entirely, it is completely the other person’s fault, and the whole world has something against me. Use this exercise to help participants see that anger can have this effect on our thoughts, and suggest some ways to counter such polarized thinking.

Instructions
Participant Handout

What Is This Body Telling You?

Can we infer emotion from body postures? This short quiz activity helps participants recognize that some emotions can be observed from non-verbal, non-facial cues and bodily postures.

Instructions
Participant Handout
Answer Scheme

Constructively, Actively, Meaningfully.

How we respond to others when they share good news with us can influence their feelings. Use this exercise to help participants cultivate a more mindful, considerate response to others who share positive events with us.

Instructions
Participant Handout A - Active-Constructive
Participant Handout B - Passive-Constructive
Participant Handout C - Active-Destructive
Participant Handout D - Passive-Destructive

Categorizing Emotions

This grouping exercise gets participants to label, categorize and systematically group emotions depending on its pleasantness and intensity.

Instructions
Participant Handout A - Emotions Plot
Participant Handout B - List of Emotions

Limiting Unhealthy Comparisons

Constant comparison leads to feelings of envy, which can be detrimental to our psychological well-being and happiness. Have participants identify their basis for such comparisons in this activity, which also helps them recognize that envy stems from comparisons in areas which are relevant and personally meaningful to us.

Instructions
Participant Handout

Expressing Emotions Creatively

How might you draw your emotions? Artistic expressions has been used as an outlet for emotions, and features in some form of psychological therapy as well.

Instructions
Participant Handout

Three Good Things

Counting one’s blessings has been shown to be an effective way to cultivate beneficial feelings of gratitude.

Instructions
Participant Handout

Letter of Self-Compassion

The hardest person to be self-compassionate towards may be yourself. Writing a letter of self-compassion may seem strange or even difficult at first, but studies have shown it to be an effective approach to cultivating resilience and positive emotions towards oneself.

Instructions
Participant Handout

Values and Inspiration

Your values influence who, and what inspires you. Inspiration is a positive emotion that motivates intentions to emulate the greatness we see in others. This discussion-focused activity helps participants identify values important to them, and targets of inspiration that drive their actions.

Instructions
Participant Handout A - Values
Participant Handout B - Quotes
Participant Handout C - Personal Values and Inspiration

Happy, or Happier?

Most people in this world are about as happy as they have made up their minds to be. Use this activity to show how Lincoln’s wisdom holds more true today in light of the evidence from psychological science.

Instructions
Participant Handout A - Happier
Participant Handout B - Happy
Sample Word Cloud

Tribes and Explorers

This group activity divides participants into two seemingly opposing teams, before getting them to realize that the best resolutions to conflict is to focus on similarities, not differences.

Instructions
Participant Handout A - Tribe Members
Participant Handout B - Explorers
Instructor Reference Notes

Gratitude and Group Significance

Yes, you are important, but so too are those you work with. Use this activity to cultivate gratitude and appreciation between groups.

Instructions
Participant Handout

Loving-Kindness Meditation

Scientific evidence suggests there are a host of benefits associated with frequent meditation practice. This activity introduces participants to a form of meditation referred to as metta meditation.

Instructions
Karaniya Metta Sutra

Being Part of Something Greater

This activity helps participants see their roles, contributions and unique skills in light of a greater good, and works well with other activities aimed that providing a short-term motivational boost.

Instructions
Participant Handout

Emotion, Thought, and Action

Emotions, thoughts and behaviours are intimately linked. This simple exercise helps participants see the associations between them.

Instructions
Participant Handout

Cooperation, Coordination, and Conflict

Emotions influence how much we choose to trust, cooperate or compete with others. This is apparent even with individuals who work closely with us. This activity helps participants recognize how team dynamics are shaped by perceptions and emotions within group settings.

Instructions
Participant Handout A - Team Epsilon
Participant Handout B - Team Sigma
Answer Scheme
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