Emotions and Colors with Happy Faces Rug
Posted by Ed Shapiro on
Emotions & Colors
with Happy Faces Rug Kindergarten · Grade 1 · 45 Minutes
A 45-minute integrated lesson using the Happy Faces border rug as the anchor for social-emotional learning, color pattern recognition, and expressive art, all woven together through the faces already on the rug.
Social-emotional learning works best when it is concrete, visible, and connected to something children can touch and move through. The Happy Faces border rug provides exactly that: a floor-level ring of colorful expressive faces that gives children a shared visual reference for discussing emotions that can otherwise feel abstract and difficult to name. This lesson uses those faces as the starting point for three connected activities spanning SEL, art, and early math.
Students will understand the concept of color patterns. Students will identify and name emotions using visual cues. Students will engage in collaborative activity that promotes social interaction and teamwork.
Four Phases,
45 Minutes
min
Introduction: Gather and Observe
Gather students around the Happy Face border rug and ask them to observe it silently for a moment before speaking. What do they notice? What do the faces look like? How do the colors make them feel?
Show emotion flashcards one at a time, happy, sad, angry, surprised, and match each one to the corresponding faces visible on the rug border. Ask students to make each face themselves so that the emotion becomes physical, not just visual.
min
Activity 1: Emotion Exploration
Divide students into small groups. Give each group a set of emotion flashcards and ask them to match the flashcards with the corresponding faces on the rug border. After matching, each group discusses one time they felt that emotion and shares with the class.
Hand out paper plates or pre-cut circles. Each student draws a different emotion on their plate. When finished, students share their drawings with the class and place them around the rug to create an extended emotion border, turning their artwork into an installation that surrounds the learning space.
min
Activity 2: Color and Pattern Recognition
Ask students to identify and name the colors of the happy faces on the rug. Then go a step further: ask how each color makes them feel. This connects the art exercise to the SEL framework already established, creating a bridge between color theory and emotional vocabulary.
On large chart paper, draw a simple pattern sequence using colors from the rug: orange, green, blue, purple. Have students continue the pattern by drawing the next circles in the sequence. The repetition of color-emotion associations from Activity 1 reinforces both the math pattern concept and the emotional vocabulary simultaneously.
min
Conclusion and Reflection
Ask students what they learned about emotions and colors today. Guide discussion toward the key insight: recognizing emotions in faces, including on a rug, helps us understand our own feelings and the feelings of the people around us. Ask students to name one emotion they want to feel more of this week.
Two Extension
Activities
Emotion Stories
Ask students to create short stories or scenarios involving the emotions they learned today. This can be done through drawings or simple sentences, depending on writing skill level. Stories are shared the following day as a circle-time warm-up.
Pattern Hunt
Send students on a pattern hunt in the classroom or at home. Where do they see repeating color or shape patterns? Students bring back one example the next day to share, reinforcing the math pattern concept beyond the lesson period.
Monitor participation and engagement during the matching game and group discussion; note which emotions students can name confidently
Evaluate students' ability to express distinct emotions through facial expression in their paper plate drawings
Assess understanding of color pattern sequences based on how students continue the chart paper pattern independently
The Rainbow Reflections Seating Rug
The happy-face border rug that anchors this lesson. A rainbow of expressive faces surrounding a central seating area, designed for exactly this kind of SEL-integrated circle time activity.