- Identify their emotions and understand the range of emotions people feel
- Describe the importance of healthy emotional expression for their mental health
- Practice the healthy emotional expression strategy of listening to music as it relates to their current mood
- Show students the “Feelings Wheel” on the slide deck and ask them to identify 2 to 3 words that depict how they are feeling at this moment.
- For easier viewing, you can also print and hand out the feelings wheel to each student or group of students.
- Ask students to share out loud as a group or with a partner next to them.
- Follow the slide deck to expand upon the feelings wheel, how people manage their feelings in healthy and unhealthy ways, and introduce music as a coping skill.
- Break students into groups and let each group choose a different emotion such as excited, calm, sad, angry, or stressed.
- Ask groups to create a music playlist with songs that match that emotion.
- High-tech options: Students can curate a playlist on a smartphone, tablet, or computer (Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon Music, YouTube, etc.).
- Low-tech options: Students can write down a list of songs and artists on paper.
- Invite groups to share some of the songs they selected and how they relate to the emotion the group chose.
- Depending on your tech options and time, invite each group to play one of their song selections for the larger group on phones or computers.
- How does identifying and expressing emotions relate to our mental health?
- What can happen if we don’t recognize our emotions? Or bottle them and don’t express emotions?
- How can music influence our emotions?
- What are other healthy ways to manage emotions?
- Encourage students to include a diverse array of music genres in their playlists.
- Clubs can share their playlists with the larger school community on social media to have a larger impact.
- Affirm that music has the power to bring people together and heal AND it can be deeply personal and associated with unique moments and memories.
- Encourage being curious and nonjudgmental to different responses to music.
- How music can improve your mental health