Feelings are Friends
Workshop on Emotional Intelligence, Well-being and Coping
Focus Area: Mental Health । Age: 10–14 । SDG 3.4 – Mental Well-being
Description:
“Emotions are Friends” helps children recognize, name and manage emotions through creative exercises and play. The workshop promotes emotional regulation, empathy and social skills in age-appropriate activities.
We work with simple tools that children can use at home and at school to talk about emotions.
Creative Practical Activity
Children explore emotions through creative drawing and a fun group experience — they learn to put words and expressions to inner states by drawing and reading each other's feelings.
- The children draw an emotion they know — without writing what it is. It can be a face, colors, shapes, or a situation that captures the feeling
- The group then plays an alternative version of charades — one child expresses an emotion using facial expressions and body language, while the others try to guess what it is
- The child who guesses correctly shares briefly about a time they felt that way — this opens up a natural and safe conversation about emotions
- Wrap up with a group discussion about how we can tell emotions apart, and what we can do when they become difficult to handle
Tip: Make sure the activities take place in a safe and inclusive environment where everyone feels comfortable expressing themselves — there are no wrong answers.
Digital Activity
For digital activities we use Genially to give emotions a voice — children record short messages where their emotion puppets talk about coping strategies.
- Create interactive presentations in Genially, where the children animate their emotion puppets and talk about coping strategies
- The teacher or trainer launches the pre-made quiz in Genially and displays it on the big screen for the whole class
- The children participate together by answering questions about how different sounds are connected to different emotions
- Discuss the answers as a group and talk about what the children noticed
Tip: Make sure the activities take place in a safe environment with adult support, especially when children share sensitive feelings.
Learning objectives
- Recognize and name emotions
- Learn coping strategies and breathing exercises
- Strengthen empathy and social support
- Express emotions creatively through puppets and digital tools
Workshop-structure
(2 hours)
- Slow start and breathing exercise (10 min)
- Introduction to emotions and emotion wheels (10 min)
- Creative activity: Emotion charades with feeling drawings (40 min)
- Pause & reflection (10 min)
- Digital activity: Group quiz on sounds and emotions in Genially (40 min)
- Sharing and summarizing (10 min)
Practical Information
- Duration: 2 hours
- Alder: 10–14 år
- Group size: 6–20 children
- Materials and iPads provided
- Mentors (15–19 years) support throughout the process
Student Assistant at ILC – Young People as Co-Creators
Creative Engagement at ILC: 14-year-old Jakob Raphael Kortsen from Sønderborg International School has been connected to GLAC's Studio since August 2023 as a student in the art classes, and six weeks ago also began contributing to the ILC project for approximately 1 to 1½ hours per week.
- Dedicated artist with an eye for detail: Jakob is known in the GLAC Studio for his focused and patient approach to creative work — he works with great care and precision on complex details in his artwork, and brings that same dedication to his work within the ILC project.
- Co-creator of a workshop: As part of his involvement with ILC, Jakob has developed the workshop "Feelings Are Friends" — a programme aimed at children and young people between the ages of 4 and 14, helping them understand, manage, and make room for their own and others' emotions.
- Active contribution: Jakob has developed ideas for both a creative, hands-on activity where children draw and read each other's emotions through a fun and alternative version of charades, as well as a digital activity where children listen to different sounds and explore the connection between sound and emotion through an interactive quiz in Genially, led by the teacher on the big screen.
- Young voices at the centre: Jakob's work is a strong example of how young people can themselves be active co-creators in innovative learning environments — and how creativity, empathy, and personal commitment can come together to make a real difference for other children and young people.
