Express My Feelings Lesson Plan
Students will identify and communicate four basic emotions (happy, sad, angry, surprised) using visual emotion cards and an AAC board, then complete a simple worksheet to reinforce expression skills.
Building social-emotional awareness and communication supports self-regulation and promotes engagement. This lesson equips nonverbal autistic learners with tools to express feelings, reducing frustration and enhancing self-advocacy.
Nonverbal Autistic Students
Use visuals and AAC tools to teach, model, and practice emotion expression.
Prep
Prepare Materials
10 minutes
Step 1
Warm-Up and Greeting
5 minutes
- Greet the student and review the purpose of today’s activity: talking about feelings.
- Use the AAC board to let the student choose a preferred greeting icon (e.g., wave, smile).
- Show 1–2 Visual Emotion Cards and ask the student to point or select on AAC which feeling they see.
Step 2
Introduce Emotion Vocabulary
10 minutes
- Present each Visual Emotion Card one at a time (happy, sad, angry, surprised).
- Model the emotion using facial expression and gesture.
- Prompt the student to select the corresponding icon on the AAC board.
- Provide positive reinforcement (e.g., “Great job pointing to happy!”) for each correct match.
Step 3
Guided Practice
10 minutes
- Lay out all four Visual Emotion Cards.
- Show a short video clip or picture scenario (teacher-selected) depicting one emotion.
- Ask the student to identify the feeling by choosing the card and AAC icon.
- Repeat with 2–3 scenarios, fading prompts as the student gains confidence.
Step 4
Independent Worksheet Activity
5 minutes
- Hand the student the Emotion Expression Worksheet.
- Instruct them to match pictures of faces on the worksheet to the labeled emotion words (pointing or using AAC as needed).
- Offer assistance by pointing to the AAC board or showing the Visual Emotion Cards if the student needs help.
- Celebrate completion with praise or a preferred item/activity.
