Feelings and Food

Overview

In this 7th lesson of the unit Healthy Choices Everyday, students explore how food and drink can affect how they feel emotionally (for example, calm, energetic, happy, or sleepy). They practise using simple feeling language and sorting foods by how they may make people feel.

Learning intentions

Students will:

• learn that nutrition can affect emotional wellbeing
• recognise and describe feelings before and after eating different foods
• compare choices of foods and drinks using simple reasons (for example, “This helps me feel calm/steady”)

Success criteria

• I can say how I feel after eating different foods.
• I can match foods to feelings using a class chart.
• I can explain my thinking using a simple sentence starter (for example, “I feel ___ after ___.”)

Curriculum links

• Health and Physical Education: personal, social and community health skills to recognise emotions and make healthier choices
• Health and Physical Education: understanding factors that influence wellbeing, including food choices
• General capability: Communication (using key vocabulary to express feelings and reasons)
• General capability: Personal and social capability (being able to talk respectfully about wellbeing)

Lesson structure (40 minutes)

1. 4 mins — Welcome & WALT

• Say: “Today we are learning to discover how nutrition affects emotional health.”
• Quick check-in: students show a face card (happy, calm, tired, excited, hungry).

2. 6 mins — Feeling + Food Read-Aloud

• Teacher reads a short, age-appropriate story about characters choosing snacks (for example, fruit, yoghurt, water, chips, lollies, juice).
• Pause twice to ask: “How might the character feel after this snack?” and record 2–3 student answers on a class chart.

3. 7 mins — Explore: Smell/Look Cards (No eating)

• In groups, students handle or view food cards (real packaging photos or cut-outs) such as fruit, yoghurt, nuts (if available), water, juice, biscuits, takeaway-type foods.
• Students pick a card and match it to a feeling card (for example, “fruit → calm/happy”, “sweet treat → excited/tired later”).
• Emphasise: “We are sharing ideas, not medical facts.”

4. 10 mins — Pair Practice: “How do I feel?”

• Use the teacher-provided sentence frames on the board:
• “I feel ___ after ___.”
• “I think this because ___.”
• In pairs (including EALD supports), students share one real experience (for example, “When I eat toast, I feel steady”).
• Teacher circulates, prompting neurodivergent students with clear options (“Is it more calm or more excited?”).

5. 8 mins — Class Sort: Emotional Wellbeing Choices

• Whole class builds a colour-coded sort:
• Foods/drinks that can help people feel “steady/calm”
• Foods/drinks that can make people feel “excited” or “too full/tired later”
• Students move a magnet/card to the place they think fits, and teacher asks: “What feeling are you thinking about?”

6. 5 mins — Exit Ticket & Reflection

• Students complete a quick drawing/writing response: “After I eat ___, I feel ___.”
• Teacher collects and checks for feeling vocabulary and correct reasoning (simple links).

Resources

• Feeling cards (happy, calm, excited, tired, hungry, sad) with clear facial expressions
• Food cards (healthy choices and sometimes foods/treats) printed on sturdy paper
• Colour-coded class chart for “steady/calm” and “excited/tired later”
• Sentence frame strips for pairs (“I feel… after… because…”)
• Pair discussion prompts on cards for teachers to use during conferencing
• Optional: picture-only worksheets for students who need reduced writing
• Magnet board or pocket chart for the class sort
• Exit ticket slips (drawing with one optional sentence)

Assessment

• Formative assessment through observation of pair discussions using sentence frames and feeling vocabulary.
• Exit ticket review: evidence that students can connect a food with a feeling and give a simple reason.
• Check class chart contributions to see if students can make and explain a choice.

Differentiation

• EALD support: provide emotion charts with images, and allow pointing instead of full sentences; pre-teach 4–6 key feeling words and 4 food categories (fruit, dairy, water, treats).
• Neurodivergent support: structured turn-taking in pairs, limited card choices per round (begin with 6 cards), and predictable routines (same sequence every time).
• Additional support: use a “choose from two” prompt (“calm or excited?”) and offer a partially completed exit ticket (“After I eat ___, I feel ___.”).
• Extension: challenge students to identify one pattern (for example, “Water makes me feel steady”) and suggest a matching emotion word.

Extension (optional)

• Students research and share “superfoods” emotionally (age-appropriate examples such as berries, yoghurt, nuts/seeds, leafy greens) by looking at picture resources provided by the teacher.
• In a short gallery walk, students add one sentence: “I think this superfood can help me feel ___ because ___.”