Naming What I Feel: an emotion regulation lesson plan.

Lesson overview

• Teacher: Autumn Ponce · ED 220 · Bay Mills Community College
• Setting: Special education resource classroom (elementary or middle school)
• Subject: Social-Emotional Learning / Health
• Lesson title: Naming What I Feel — Building an Emotion Regulation Mind Map

Standards addressed

• CASEL — Self-Awareness: identifying emotions and recognizing personal strengths.
• CASEL — Self-Management: using strategies to manage emotions and behavior.
• ISTE Student Standard 1.6 (Creative Communicator): students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively using digital tools.
• Aligned to each student’s IEP goals in social-emotional development and self-regulation.

Measurable objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will:

• Identify and name at least 4 different emotions using visuals, words, or AAC/speech-to-text supports.
• Match each named emotion to at least one body cue (tight chest, hot face, tears) and one coping strategy (deep breath, break card, movement).
• Create a digital mind map in Canva, Google Slides, or Jamboard with at least 3 branches organizing emotions, body cues, and coping strategies.
• Share one coping strategy from their mind map with a peer or the teacher using their preferred mode of communication.

Materials & technology

• Student devices (Chromebooks or iPads) with internet access.
• Canva for Education, Google Slides, or Jamboard accounts.
• Printed emotion picture cards and body-cue visuals for students who need a concrete starting point.
• Feelings & Emotions Mind Map Rubric and the Special Education Emotion Regulation Rubric in kid-friendly language.
• Break cards, fidgets, noise-reducing headphones, and a calm-down corner available at all times.
• Interactive whiteboard or projector to model the mind map live.
• Sentence stems and a printed word bank of emotion words (happy, calm, frustrated, worried, proud, overwhelmed).

Steps & instructions

1. Warm-up (5–7 min)

Greet each student by name at the door. Show four emotion faces on the board. Students place a sticky note (or drag a digital token) under the face that matches how they feel right now. Low-stakes check-in that models the language we’ll use.

2. Mini-lesson & modeling (10 min)

Read a short section of an emotion-focused story like The Color Monster by Anna Llenas or watch a 2–3 minute Edpuzzle clip about naming feelings. Then, on the projector, I model building my own emotion mind map in Canva, thinking aloud: “When I feel frustrated, my shoulders get tight. One thing that helps me is taking three slow breaths.” I add branches for the emotion, the body cue, and the coping strategy.

3. Guided practice — small group (10 min)

I pull a small group at the back table. Together we use emotion picture cards to sort feelings, body cues, and coping strategies. Students who need it can start by pointing, using AAC, or matching cards before typing anything. Students who are ready move straight into their own device.

4. Independent practice (15–20 min)

Students build their own digital mind map on Canva, Google Slides, or Jamboard — at least 3 emotions, a body cue for each, and one coping strategy for each. I circulate, confer, and use the rubric to give real-time feedback. Students may use speech-to-text, MagicSchool AI sentence starters, or Boom Cards for extra support.

5. Share & regulate (5 min)

Each student shares one branch of their mind map with a peer or with me — verbally, through AAC, by reading from their screen, or by pointing. We end with one slow breath together as a class.

Assignment / practice

Students finish their mind map for homework or morning work if not completed in class. They try one coping strategy from their mind map at home or in another class this week and be ready to tell me how it went at our next check-in. Families receive a short note (communication folder or ClassDojo) explaining what their child worked on and how to support the strategy at home.

Evaluation & assessment

I assess the completed mind map using the Special Education Emotion Regulation Rubric — six criteria across four performance levels: understanding of emotions, coping strategies, organization, use of technology, creativity, and communication. I also collect observational data during small-group and independent practice — noting which students named emotions independently, which needed visual or AAC support, and which coping strategies each student chose. That data feeds directly into progress monitoring on IEP social-emotional goals.

Differentiation & supports

• Accommodations: extended time, oral or AAC responses, chunked directions, printed word bank, reduced number of required branches, and preferential seating near the teacher.
• Modifications: for students on modified expectations, the target may be 2 emotions with 1 coping strategy each, using picture cards dragged into a pre-made Canva template.
• Enrichment: students who finish early add a “What I can say to a friend who feels this way” branch, practicing empathy and self-advocacy language.
• Behavior supports: break cards, calm-down corner, and a quiet check-in signal are available throughout the lesson. Behavior is treated as communication, not defiance.

Contingency plan if technology fails

If devices, Wi-Fi, or Canva/Google are not working, students build their mind map on paper using pre-cut emotion cards, markers, and a folded piece of construction paper as their “branches” template. The rubric criteria stay the same — only the medium changes. I keep a printed set of emotion cards, body-cue visuals, and coping-strategy cards in a labeled bin so the lesson can run fully offline at any time.

Read alongside the rubrics below — the lesson plan and rubrics are designed to be used together.