Engaging and Interactive ESL Lessons to Teach Feelings & Emotions
This Feelings Unit from SuperEnglishESL.com introduces Level 2 students to essential vocabulary and sentence structures for expressing emotions and needs. Through interactive games, phonics practice, sentence-building exercises, and real-world applications, students will learn to describe feelings, answer “why” questions, and express wants and needs confidently. This unit is ideal for 1:1 online ESL lessons, group classes, or classroom instruction.
ESL teachers will benefit from structured, low-prep lesson plans with engaging worksheets and speaking activities that encourage students to talk about emotions in real-world contexts. By the end of this unit, students will confidently express how they feel, use “because” to explain emotions, and differentiate between wants and needs in daily conversations.
Students learn common feeling words like happy, sad, thirsty, and hungry and practice forming questions and sentences about emotions.
✔️ Warm-up: Memory game with animals and numbers.
✔️ Reading & Discussion: “How do they feel?” – Learning emotions with visuals.
✔️ Vocabulary Focus: hot, thirsty, hungry, sad, happy, love.
✔️ Grammar & Sentence Structures: “How does he feel?” / “She feels…”
✔️ Phonics: “ng” consonant blends (king, ring, song).
✔️ Interactive Elements: Tic-Tac-Toe, rhymes, and role-playing.
✔️ Real-Life Applications: Describing feelings in daily situations.
Students learn to answer “Why?” questions using “because” and expand their emotional vocabulary.
✔️ Warm-up: “Which one is different?” activity (feelings vs. jobs).
✔️ Reading & Discussion: “Why are you happy?” – Using “because” to explain emotions.
✔️ Vocabulary Focus: full, scared, because.
✔️ Grammar & Sentence Structures: “Why is he scared? – Because he sees a ghost.”
✔️ Phonics: “nk” consonant blends (bank, think, skunk).
✔️ Interactive Elements: Story-based reading, rhymes, and check-the-box quizzes.
✔️ Real-Life Applications: Explaining why we feel a certain way in conversations.
Students differentiate between feelings and needs while practicing sentence structures for expressing needs.
✔️ Warm-up: Spot-the-difference activity.
✔️ Reading & Discussion: “What does he need?” – Learning needs vs. feelings.
✔️ Vocabulary Focus: need, sick, hurt.
✔️ Grammar & Sentence Structures: “He needs a doctor because he feels sick.”
✔️ Phonics: “nd” consonant blends (sand, pond, find).
✔️ Interactive Elements: Role-playing needs vs. wants in daily life.
✔️ Real-Life Applications: Asking for help when sick, expressing needs.
Students learn how to talk about what they want vs. what they need, along with expressions for anger and sleepiness.
✔️ Warm-up: “What time is it?” – Discussing sleepiness.
✔️ Reading & Discussion: “She wants ice cream, but she needs vegetables.”
✔️ Vocabulary Focus: want, angry, sleepy.
✔️ Grammar & Sentence Structures: “What does he want?” / “He wants to play, but he needs to sleep.”
✔️ Phonics: “nt” consonant blends (paint, tent, hunt).
✔️ Interactive Elements: Rhyming games, reading stories about wants vs. needs.
✔️ Real-Life Applications: Expressing wants and needs in conversation.
A comprehensive review of all vocabulary, sentence structures, and phonics from the unit.
✔️ Warm-up: Engaging vocabulary recall games.
✔️ Assessment Tasks:
✅ Young ESL learners (A1-A2) in classrooms, online, or homeschool settings.
✅ 1:1 ESL tutoring or group lessons.
✅ Teachers who want a structured, engaging, low-prep feelings unit.
📝 Lesson Previews & Worksheets
🎲 Games & Activities
📚 Reading Passages & Rhymes
🔊 Phonics & Sentence-Building Exercises
📌 Use real-life situations to help students connect emotions to experiences.
📌 Encourage role-playing and storytelling for stronger speaking skills.
📌 Have students act out different emotions and ask their peers questions.