I Dance How I Feel

With four different pieces of music and face cards, children dance happiness, anger, sadness and fear their own way, then figure out how to dance to feel better. It works on recognizing feelings and expressing them with the body.

How to play

1. Seated, the teacher shows the cards (happy, angry, sad, scared) and everyone makes each face (2 min).
2. Happy music plays and the teacher holds up the card: children dance happily around the room however they like (2 min).
3. Loud, angry music: they dance with stomps and clenched fists, touching no one; slow, sad music: they dance heavy and slow, looking at the floor (3 min).
4. Scary music: they dance small, on tiptoe, looking around; afterward the teacher asks which dance helps when we feel scared or sad (2 min).
5. Feel-better dance: with happy music again, each child dances whatever helps them (hugging themselves, jumping, stretching) and ends with a hug for someone who wants one or for themselves (3 min).

Rules

• I dance the feeling my own way.
• You can dance angry without hurting anyone.
• Every feeling is okay.
• I only hug if the other person wants to.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: the child expresses each feeling with the face, arms and trunk from the chair.
• Autism: use cards with photos of real faces and name the feeling at each change; never require the final hug.
• Hearing impairment: hold the card up high for the whole piece and exaggerate expressions.

Learning goals

• Recognize basic feelings.
• Express feelings with the body and face.
• Find movement strategies to feel better.

Equipment for a class of 25

• Music
• Feelings cards: 4

Teacher tip

Set the limit before the angry dance: stomps go into the floor. Listen to what they say at the end; sometimes important things come up that are worth revisiting in class.

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