Lesson Outcomes
National Curriculum
Resources: Pens, pencils, emotion fans, feeling scales
Handout 1: The handout provides picture cards for the children to sort into things that ‘help my mind and body’ and things that ‘might not help my mind and body'.
Handout 2: The handout provides a template for the children to draw their healthy habits.
Handout 3: This is a certificate that can be personalised and presented to the children after completing the programme.
Starter
Use the starter slide to complete an emotional check-in with each other, using emotion fans and the feelings scale.
Recap all that the children have learnt so far about feelings.
Main Teaching
Using the video, the children will link back to their learning on anxiety and understand that other factors also affect our feelings, for example, not having enough sleep, being hungry or dehydrated, spending time on screens, and eating lots of sugar. Discuss with the children that looking after your body can look after your mind and vice versa. Use the presentation slides to gather ideas of how we can look after our bodies.
Task: Using the picture cards, ask the children to sort the activities into things that ‘Help my mind and body’ and things that ‘Might not help my mind and body’.
Main Teaching
Bring the children back together and reflect on their sorting activity, clarifying any misconceptions. Explain to the children that some activities aren’t ‘bad’, but that balance is important.
Task: Ask the children to draw four healthy habits under the given categories that they can practise: Rest, Nature, Friends/Family, Hobbies. The teacher should model their own version of this with the children before they begin the task. Ask them to keep their healthy habits card somewhere they can go back to and check that they are staying on top of them.
Plenary
Use the time to reflect on all the children have learnt over this unit. Remind the children they have been ‘Emotion Detectives’, and they can now name feelings, detect them in their body, find someone to talk to, and stick to healthy habits.
Present the children with their ‘Emotion Detectives’ certificate.
Teacher Mastery
This lesson explores how factors like sleep, hydration, food, screen time and rest can affect our feelings, but teachers should be mindful of children's home lives when delivering this content. Not all parents or carers will be able to support healthy bedtime routines, balanced eating or limited screen time, so it is important to avoid any language that could make children feel blamed or judged for circumstances outside their control. To keep the lesson positive and appropriate, focus on the small things that KS1 children themselves can control and are in charge of, such as choosing to play outside, spending time with friends, trying a hobby they enjoy, or drinking enough water throughout the day. This keeps the lesson empowering rather than placing responsibility on children for decisions that are, in reality, made by the adults around them.
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