The Arts · Grade 1

Active learning ideas

Music and Emotions

Children in Grade 1 learn best when they connect abstract ideas to movement and personal experience. In this unit, active listening through dance, percussion, and art helps students solidify their understanding of how music shapes emotion, making the lesson both memorable and meaningful.

• Ontario Curriculum Expectations
• MU:Cn11.1.1a

• 20–35 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Hundred Languages
• 30 min · Whole Class

Whole Class: Emotion Freeze Dance

Play 30-second clips of music evoking happy, sad, calm, or excited feelings. Students dance freely to show the emotion, then freeze in a pose when music stops. After each clip, lead a 1-minute share: students describe their poses and feelings.

How does this music make you feel , happy, calm, or excited?

Facilitation Tip

During Emotion Freeze Dance, cue students to freeze and point to the emotion they feel when the music stops, reinforcing quick emotional recognition.

What to look for

Give each student a card with a picture representing an emotion (e.g., a smiling face for happy, a sleeping face for calm). Ask them to draw a simple musical symbol (like a fast note for fast tempo or a large circle for loud dynamics) that they think matches that emotion and explain why.

• Understand
• Apply
• Create
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management
• Social Awareness

Activity 02

• Hundred Languages
• 25 min · Small Groups

Small Groups: Body Percussion Emotions

Assign each group an emotion and a steady beat. Groups create and practice body percussion patterns (claps, snaps, stomps) that match the feeling, varying speed and volume. Groups perform for the class, who guess the emotion.

Can you hum or tap a beat that sounds like how you feel right now?

Facilitation Tip

For Body Percussion Emotions, model how to match hand claps or taps to a piece’s tempo before asking groups to create their own patterns.

What to look for

Play two short musical excerpts that both sound happy. Ask students: 'How are these happy songs the same? How are they different?' Guide them to notice similarities in beat or melody and differences in volume or speed.

• Understand
• Apply
• Create
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management
• Social Awareness

Activity 03

• Hundred Languages
• 20 min · Pairs

Pairs: Mirror Movement Symphony

Partners face each other; one leads slow movements to calm music, the other mirrors. Switch leaders and music types for different emotions. Pairs discuss what made mirroring easy or hard and how music influenced their choices.

How is this happy song the same as that other happy song we heard? How is it different?

Facilitation Tip

In Mirror Movement Symphony, demonstrate slow, large movements for calm music and quick, sharp movements for excited music to set clear expectations for pairs.

What to look for

Play a short musical excerpt. Ask students to hold up one finger for calm, two fingers for excited, or three fingers for happy. Observe their responses to gauge their initial emotional interpretations.

• Understand
• Apply
• Create
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management
• Social Awareness

Activity 04

• Hundred Languages
• 35 min · Individual

Individual: Feeling Sketchbooks

After listening to two similar 'happy' songs, students draw how each made them feel, noting same and different aspects. Share one drawing in a gallery walk, explaining musical reasons for their emotions.

How does this music make you feel , happy, calm, or excited?

Facilitation Tip

Provide students with pre-drawn emotion labels in their Feeling Sketchbooks to focus their drawing rather than spending time on layout.

What to look for

Give each student a card with a picture representing an emotion (e.g., a smiling face for happy, a sleeping face for calm). Ask them to draw a simple musical symbol (like a fast note for fast tempo or a large circle for loud dynamics) that they think matches that emotion and explain why.

• Understand
• Apply
• Create
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management
• Social Awareness

A few notes on teaching this unit

Start with Emotion Freeze Dance to anchor emotional vocabulary in physical movement, as research shows kinesthetic learning strengthens memory. Avoid over-simplifying by labeling music as 'happy' or 'sad' without discussion; instead, guide students to notice how elements like pitch or tempo contribute to the mood. Use pair work to build confidence, then bring students back to whole-group sharing to validate diverse responses.

By the end of these activities, students will confidently identify tempo, dynamics, pitch, and timbre as musical elements that create specific emotions. They will also articulate personal connections to music, sharing how different pieces make them feel and why.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During Emotion Freeze Dance, watch for students who assume all fast music is happy.

  Pause the music during freeze moments and ask, 'Does this fast song feel happy, excited, or maybe something else?' Have students whisper their guesses to a partner before sharing with the class.

• During Mirror Movement Symphony, watch for students who assume all loud music sounds angry or scary.

  Provide two loud excerpts, one with smooth dynamics and another with sharp accents, and ask pairs to mirror movements for each. Discuss how loudness paired with smoothness can sound powerful or joyful instead of angry.

• During Body Percussion Emotions, watch for students who think emotional responses are the same for everyone.

  After each group shares their percussion pattern, ask classmates to show with fingers how the pattern made them feel. Compare responses to highlight that the same tempo or volume can evoke different emotions in different people.

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Methods used in this brief

• Hundred Languages