Feelings and Friends

Overview

This 45-minute lesson (Lesson 10 of 15) is designed for Year 0 students in New Zealand to explore how feelings affect friendships, focusing on recognising and supporting friends who experience different feelings. This aligns closely with the New Zealand Curriculum Refresh in Health and Physical Education, supporting students in understanding their own and others' emotions and developing empathy through role-play.

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Curriculum Links

Learning Area: Health and Physical Education (HPE)
Strand: Emotional Well-being and Relationships
Progress Outcome:

• Students understand and express a range of feelings and begin to recognise that others may feel differently.
• Students develop skills to support and nurture positive relationships and show care and respect for others.
• Development of key competencies: Managing Self, Relating to Others, and Participating and Contributing.

Specific Curriculum References:

• Health and Physical Education
  • Understanding Myself: Recognise and communicate emotions and feelings appropriately (Year 0)
  • Building Relationships: Show ways to care for others and respond to their feelings
• Key Competencies:
  • Managing Self – expressing feelings in appropriate ways
  • Relating to Others – recognising and respecting others’ feelings and supporting them
  • Participating and Contributing – working together cooperatively and supporting others respectfully

Teaching Considerations:

• Use of rich, age-appropriate vocabulary for feelings (e.g., happy, sad, angry, calm)
• Establishing a supportive classroom environment for safe sharing
• Explicit teaching of self-regulation and empathy vocabulary
• Use of role-play to enhance social and emotional learning through active participation

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Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will:

• Recognise that their feelings can affect their friends.
• Identify feelings in themselves and others using Zones of Regulation language (e.g., green zone for calm, blue for sad, yellow for anxious/worried, red for angry/upset).
• Demonstrate ways to support a friend who is feeling differently through guided role-play.
• Use appropriate vocabulary to express feelings and responses in social interactions.

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Resources

• Picture cards or posters depicting the Zones of Regulation feelings (calm, sad, worried, angry)
• Puppets or soft toys for role-play
• Feelings chart with faces and simple emotion words
• Storybook or short video depicting friends experiencing different feelings
• Visual aids for vocabulary (happy, sad, help, share, listen, calm)

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Lesson Plan Breakdown

1. Introduction (5 minutes)

• Gather students in a circle (mat time).
• Briefly revisit the previous lessons on feelings by asking simple questions:
  • "How do you feel today?"
  • "Can feelings change during the day?"
• Introduce the lesson focus: How our feelings can affect our friends.
• Show Zones of Regulation poster/cards and briefly explain with simple language.

2. Storytime / Visual Introduction (7 minutes)

• Read a simple story or show a short video where characters experience different emotions and their friends respond.
• Pause to ask:
  • "How do you think this character feels?"
  • "How could their friend help them?"
• Encourage predictions and observations, fostering connection with personal experience.

3. Discussion and Vocabulary Building (8 minutes)

• Using visual aids, introduce/support feeling words relevant to the Zones of Regulation (e.g., calm, sad, worried, angry).
• Demonstrate with a puppet or toy showing a feeling. Ask students to identify and name the feeling.
• Discuss briefly how friends might feel too and how their feelings can change others’ feelings.

4. Role-play Activity (15 minutes)

• Set the context: Explain that sometimes friends feel different things at the same time, and we can help each other.
• Divide the class into small groups or pairs (managing 25 students: groups of 4-5).
• Give each group a simple scenario with puppets/toys illustrating a friend in a different Zone. Example scenarios:
  • Friend is sad (blue zone) and another friend helps by listening and giving a hug.
  • Friend is angry (red zone) and another friend helps by giving space or suggesting a calming activity.
• Groups practice role-playing these scenarios.
• Teacher circulates to support, scaffold language, and encourage empathy statements ("Are you okay?" "Do you want to play?").

5. Sharing & Reflection (8 minutes)

• Bring class back together.
• Invite some groups or volunteers to demonstrate their role-play.
• Discuss together:
  • "How did the friend help?"
  • "How do you think that made them feel?"
• Support use of new vocabulary and positive language.
• Reinforce the message that friends can feel differently and that caring helps friendships grow.

6. Closing & Transition (2 minutes)

• Summarise key learning points: feelings affect us and our friends, and we can support each other in kind ways.
• End with a calming group breath or a short ‘feelings’ song to settle before the next activity.

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Assessment and Reflection

• Formative Assessment: Observe students’ participation in discussions and role-plays, noting use of feeling vocabulary and demonstration of empathy.
• Teacher Notes: Check for understanding of how feelings can affect friends and ability to suggest/support appropriate responses.
• Use simple prompts during role-plays to check comprehension: "How do you feel?" "What can you do to help your friend?"
• Reflect on engagement and language used to guide future lessons.

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Additional Notes for Teachers

• Use language scaffolding and visual supports consistently to aid understanding, especially for ESL learners.
• Be culturally responsive in recognising diverse ways students express and respond to feelings.
• Encourage peer support and model respectful listening and turn-taking.
• Embed ongoing vocabulary reinforcement throughout the unit.

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This lesson integrates explicit teaching, safe environment creation, and active role-play, aligning with the social and emotional well-being focus of the New Zealand Curriculum Refresh for Year 0 Health and Physical Education. It empowers students to understand feelings in themselves and others and to positively contribute to their friendships with aged-appropriate vocabulary and empathy skills .