Extend the activity by asking students to tell and eventually write an emotional story. Discuss what a person would do, say or think if they were feeling a specific emotion such as excitement, nervousness, anxiety or ecstasy. Ask students to choose an emotion, close their eyes and think of a time s/he felt that emotion. Remind them to use rich feeling words. Now work toward drawing that story and, depending on the students’ levels, work toward writing the story. Learning centers. As students’ skills develop, move the PAD game to a learning center and encourage students to draw faces, especially faces that express emotions, and talk, discuss and write about those emotions.
The success of these activities depends partly on the teacher’s modeling. Modeling involves demonstrating the specific actions and language patterns you want the students to use in their own work. Words alone are not enough. Often, children hear the right words for an action but struggle in the moment to actually follow through. Saying that they need to draw the eyes is not the same thing as showing them how to draw them. As they follow your demonstration, students begin to internalize the skills. 15