Unit Plan 2 (Grade 1 Counselor): Feelings Have Names

Focus: Help students identify and name common feelings with more precision than they may have used in Kindergarten. Students review emotions such as happy, sad, mad, worried, scared, excited, embarrassed, proud, calm, and frustrated. The counselor uses feelings cards, facial-expression pictures, or a read-aloud where students identify how characters feel and what clues helped them know.

Grade Level: 1

Subject Area: School Counseling (Feelings • Emotional Vocabulary • Self-Awareness)

Total Unit Duration: 1–2 weeks, 30 minutes per session

I. Introduction

This Grade 1 counseling lesson helps students build a stronger vocabulary for naming feelings. Many students already know simple emotion words such as happy, sad, and mad, but this lesson expands their language so they can describe feelings more clearly. Students practice identifying emotions in themselves, in classmates, and in story or picture characters.

The counselor uses feelings cards, facial-expression pictures, puppet examples, or a short read-aloud to help students notice clues such as face, body, voice, situation, and behavior. Students learn that naming a feeling is an important first step before choosing a coping tool, asking for help, solving a problem, or explaining what they need.

Essential Questions

• What are some feelings students may have at school or home?
• How can students tell how someone might feel?
• What clues can faces, bodies, voices, and situations give us?
• Why is it helpful to name a feeling clearly?
• How can students connect feelings to experiences and needs?

II. Objectives and Standards

Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:

1. Name common feelings such as happy, sad, mad, worried, scared, excited, embarrassed, proud, calm, and frustrated.
2. Identify feelings in themselves, picture cards, puppets, classmates, or story characters.
3. Use facial-expression, body, voice, and situation clues to explain how someone may feel.
4. Connect emotions to common school or home experiences.
5. Describe a simple need connected to a feeling, such as help, space, rest, comfort, a turn, or clarification.
6. (Optional Session) Apply emotional vocabulary through a read-aloud, feeling match game, partner share, or feelings clue sort.

Standards Alignment — Grade 1 (ASCA-based Custom)

• C:S1.1a — Identify Feelings, Needs, and Experiences
  • Name basic feelings, describe simple needs, and connect emotions to common school or home experiences.
  • Example: A student says, “I feel frustrated because I could not finish my work.”
• C:S2.1a — Name and Recognize Common Emotions
  • Identify common emotions in themselves and others, including happy, sad, mad, worried, scared, excited, embarrassed, proud, and calm.
  • Example: A student looks at a picture and says, “He looks worried because his eyebrows are up and he is holding his backpack tightly.”

Success Criteria — Student Language

• I can name common feelings.
• I can look for clues to tell how someone might feel.
• I can connect a feeling to something that happened.
• I can say what I might need when I have a feeling.
• I can use feeling words during counseling lessons.