Lessons based on drawing are an excellent way to teach pre-kindergarten students about feelings. Children can start by reviewing the different types of emotions as a class or in small groups. Then, individually, they can draw pictures of each feeling. Young children may interpret this assignment very freely; some may draw facial expressions while others will focus on objects or situations that inspire the emotion. To expand this lesson, have children draw an autobiographical picture about a day in their lives when they felt a certain emotion. Keep the subject simple enough for them to understand, such as "My Sad Day" or "My Funny Family."
Children love to create and play with puppets. An art lesson about puppets will help them not only understand faces and their relation to emotions, but also act out different feelings using the puppets they make. Puppet-making materials should be very easy for young hands to manipulate and should not require the use of hot glue or scissors. Instead, teachers can provide pre-cut people shapes from construction paper or oak tag and glue them to Popsicle sticks after children have decorated them with facial expressions. Children can play with the puppets or use them to express difficult feelings like sadness or embarrassment.
Children will best learn the connection between feelings and facial expressions by participating in a mask-making art lesson. Masks can be simple or complex, depending on how many teachers are available to help. For example, teachers can provide a face-shaped piece of paper for students to decorate, or they can help students make a mask form from paper mache and balloons. Once students have several mask forms, they can make a different mask for each feeling they have learned, focusing on how the mouth and eyes convey that feeling. Play games with the masks when students are finished to reinforce the lesson. Write a feeling on the board and have students put on a mask that matches the emotion, or have them act out the feelings on their masks in small groups.
Another way for pre-kindergarten children to learn about feelings through art is by making collages. This method will help them identify what different emotions look like on different people. Provide magazines and newspapers for children to look through where they can tear out pictures and avoid using scissors. Students can make their own individual collages or they can make collaborative works of art as a class. Label large poster boards with the name of a feeling and encourage students to paste the pictures they find onto the appropriate board.