Psychological First Aid and Mental

Health Activities
Grade 4-6
FEELING DANCE:

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Students practice expressing and recognizing feelings using
facial expressions and dance in this fun game.

Objectives

A 1. To creativity express emotions through movement.

2. To communicate non-verbally and begin to recognize others
expressions.

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A. Introduce the activity: Feeling Dance.

B. Explain that the objective of the activity is to use the face and body

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to practice.

C. Explain to students that this is a silent dance so they will play with
their bodies not their voice.

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D. Tell students that they will walk in a circle and your will call out a
feeling. When they hear a feeling called out each student should start
dancing (or moving)in a way that shows that feeling.

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E. Brainstorm with students a list of feelings that you will call out. Some
suggested feelings are happy, sad, lonely, afraid, surprised, embarrassed,
calm, shy or angry.

F. Explain that students should dance until you give the Quiet Signal and
then they should return to quietly walking in a circle.

THE CHAIR:
 Students become aware of their immediate environment and
identify things that do not cause them stress in this
facilitated activity.

1. To identify the things in the environment that are non-

distressing.

2. To feel a sense of calm.

Have students sit in a comfortable position with their legs and

arms uncrossed.

1. Say in calming tone.

Breathe in and out slowly and deeply.

2. Look around you and silently in your head, name five non-distressing
objects that you can see. For example, you can say, “I see the floor, I see
a shoe, I see a table, I see a chair, I see a person.”

3. Breathe in and out slowly deeply. Slowly close your eyes.

4. Silently in your head, name five non-distressing sounds you can hear.
For example, you could say, “I hear a woman talking, I hear a myself
breathing, I hear a door close, I hear someone typing, I hear a cell phone
ringing.”

5. Breathe in and out slowly and deeply.

Silently in your head, name five non-distressing things you can

feel. For example, you can say, I can feel this wooden armrest
with my hands, I can feel my toes inside my shoes, I can feel
my back pressing against my chair,o I can feel the blanket in
my hands.”

Breathe in and out slowly and deeply. Slowly open your eyes.

LETS TALK!
How do you feel? Is it different than when we started the
activity?

Was it easy for you to identify non-distressing things?

Why do you think this is important?

Do you think you can do this alone? How do you think it would
help you?

TIPS:
If you have students that are shy, it is important to give them
space and time to answer the question and without judgment,
if they do not feel comfortable answering.