Corinne Keller

Lesson Plan Reflection

I implemented a lesson in the Explorers preschool classroom. My lesson was “Exploring

Emotions Through Art” where students would use open-ended materials to create a picture of

how they were feeling that day. My standards for this lesson were, Domain: Creative

Development. Strand: 1.a. Expresses ideas and feelings through visual art. Code: 6. Explores

open-ended art materials to create process focused art and Domain: Social and Emotional

Development. Strand: 1.b. Develops understanding of emotions. Code: 4. Recognizes and

identifies own emotions and emotions of others. The objectives were, The student will be able to

express and identify their feelings and ideas through visual art while exploring open-ended

materials and The student will be able to develop an understanding of emotions by identifying

and recognizing their own emotions and emotions of others.

Firstly, I changed my lesson after discussing it with the Explorer’s cooperating teacher.

We agreed that my first plan was too complicated for the students so we simplified it. In my

original lesson plan, I had the students looking into a mirror and practicing what different

emotions look like on their faces and then they would draw their favorite one. I modified the

lesson to just having a conversation with the students about emotions and asking them to draw

the emotion that they are feeling today and what it looks like.

If I were to teach this lesson again, I would make more observations of the students’

abilities and interests to make a better plan that they could learn from effectively. I would also

potentially ask the students individually how they were feeling that day and to draw what it looks

like for them. When I did it in a group, one student would say something and the rest of the
students would follow suit. So, I would be curious to see if their answers and drawings would be

different if they had done the activity with me one-on-one.

While teaching this lesson, I learned the difference in knowledge between the older kids

in the classroom and the younger ones. The older kids could name more emotions and feelings as

well as describe them. They could also tell me how they look when they feel those emotions. The

younger kids could tell me some general emotions, but struggled explaining them or showing me

what they look like. The younger kids also followed or copied the things that the older kids were

talking about or doing. While I was curious to see what the younger students knew without the

older students’ input, I knew that this was a good learning experience for them and allowed them

to learn from their peers. It also allowed the older students to take a mentor role and help the

younger students complete the task.

Going off the younger students, there was a student who just turned three years old and

newly joined the explorers classroom. She was still getting used to routines and concepts in the

classroom so I made some modifications to the activity to ensure her success. I asked her what

she did today and how it made her feel, going more in-depth in asking her questions instead of

the general question that I had asked the older students, how are you feeling today? After hearing

her responses, I asked her to pick out some colors and draw what she had felt while doing the

activity. Going more in depth with my explanations and giving her more one-on-one support

allowed her to succeed in the task.

Overall, I believe that I had good foundational roots for this lesson. In the future I need to

modify the activity to the students’ level of understanding and abilities. It is essential to have

conversations about emotions and feelings in the classroom in order to allow the students to

succeed in becoming aware of their emotions and working on how to cope with them.