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What Makes You Feel Happy?

The Book

I Have Feelings

Written by Jana Hunter, illustrated by Sue Porter

I Have Feelings by Jana Hunter is a sweet story that explores the wide range of emotions children experience. Through relatable scenarios and simple text, the book helps young readers recognise and understand their own feelings, such as happiness, sadness, and anger, and what triggers those feelings. This book serves as an excellent resource to support children in describing and express emotions they experience in an appropriate way (AC9HPFP03 – Foundation Year, Health and Physical Education).

With its vibrant illustrations and engaging narrative, I Have Feelings encourages children to express their emotions in a healthy and constructive way. It provides a perfect opportunity to discuss emotional literacy, social skills, and respectful interactions with peers.

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Resource creator

Lian Khanh

Subject

Health and Physical Education,

Level

Foundation,

Description

In this fun lesson, students will learn about feelings by listening to a story, playing games, and dancing. They will talk about different emotions and what makes them feel happy, sad, or excited.

Learning Intentions

• Students are learning about different feelings and what makes them feel that way.

Successful Criteria

• I can name different feelings.
• I can show how feelings look on my face and in my body.
• I can talk about what makes me feel different emotions.

Curriculum Alignment

AC9HPFP03 9.0 (Health and Physical Education Foundation): Express and describe emotions they experience

• identifying and describing the emotions of people who are happy, sad, excited, tired, angry, scared or confused
• learning and using appropriate language and actions to communicate their feelings in different situations
• recalling and sharing emotional responses to different situations and representing these in a variety of ways
• reading and viewing stories about adventures, and talking about how characters feel and react when taking risks or responding to emergencies
• talking about connections between feelings, body reactions and body language
• expressing a variety of emotions, thoughts and views in a range of situations

ACPPS005 8.4 (Health and Physical Education Foundation): Identify and describe emotional responses people may experience in different situations

• identifying and describing the emotions of people who are happy, sad, excited, tired, angry, scared or confused
• learning and using appropriate language and actions to communicate their feelings in different situations
• recalling and sharing emotional responses to different situations and representing this in a variety of ways
• reading and viewing stories about adventures and talking about how characters feel and react when taking risks
• talking about connections between feelings, body reactions and body language
• exploring how someone might think and feel during an emergency

Materials

Instruction

1. Storytime

  • Read I Have Feelings by Jana Hunter aloud.
  • Pause during the story to ask:
    • “How do you think this character is feeling?”
    • “What does their face and body look like?”
    • “Have you ever felt like this?”

2. Body Clues

  • Show emotion cards or act out different feelings (e.g., happy, sad, nervous, excited).
  • Example:
    • “I feel happy when I teach you all.”
    • “I feel calm when I take a deep breath.”

3. Discussion

  • Put emotion cards (happy, sad, frustrated) on the board.
  • Teacher explains the rule and models:
    • “I feel happy when I teach you all.”
    • “I feel calm when I take a deep breath.”
  • Students pair up and talk about a time they felt each emotion on the board (e.g., “I feel sad when I lose my toy. I felt angry because Mum picked me up very late.”).
  • Encourage students to use the sentence stem: “I feel __ because/when __.”

4. Closing

  • Play Feelings Freeze Dance on YouTube and let students dance.
  • When the music stops, call out a feeling (e.g., “Show me a happy face!”).
  • Students freeze and show the feeling on their face and in their body.

Related Activities

AC9HPFP03 (Health and Physical Education – Foundation) ACPPS005 (Health and Physical Education – Foundation)

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