Guide · For teachers

For teachers: free lessons on feelings and communication

Plain, warm pages on how feelings work and how people talk and listen, with printable one-page handouts, words students can actually say, and clear permission to use them in class. Free, with nothing to sign up for.

Yes, you can use this in class

You may print and share pages and handouts for non-commercial teaching and group use, with credit. That covers schools, colleges, youth groups, clubs, and community and faith groups. Showing pages on a screen is fine too.

Please keep the credit line (“From spreadloveandacceptance.com”) and the safety notes on anything you hand out, don’t charge for copies, and don’t change the meaning. Selling the material, or putting it inside a paid course, needs written permission. The full wording is in the Terms of Service.

The best pages for a lesson

These explain one thing at a time, in plain words, with short examples from school, home, friends and work, and lines people could actually say.

Related chapters if your class wants more: Stress and the nervous system, How we see each other, Minds that work differently and Healing after hurt. Each one names the research behind it, with links to plain summaries of every source.

Seven printable handouts, each with a Teens version

Each handout fits on one page: three key ideas, discussion questions, one thing to try this week, and a short Teens version with school examples. Every printed handout ends with help lines for the US, the UK and elsewhere. Handouts 1 to 6 are in the group guide; handout 7 is just below, and goes with the lesson on this page.

  1. Turning toward the small moments
  2. Check-ins: hear it back before you answer
  3. Love languages as a menu
  4. Repair: saying sorry so it lands
  5. When it gets heated: pause, settle, come back
  6. Your circle of control, and sharing the load
  7. How feelings work: naming what you feel

On the group guide, Print this handout prints one handout on its own page, and Print all handouts prints all six there.

For teachers · Handout 7

How feelings work: naming what you feel

Treat a feeling as a signal, notice it in your body, and put a word to it, so you can choose what to do next.

Three key ideas

  1. A feeling is a signal, not a verdict. It tells you something matters, but it can be wrong about the details, like a smoke alarm going off for burnt toast.
  2. Feelings often start in the body: a racing heart, a hot face, a knot in the stomach. Hunger, tiredness and pain can feel a lot like being upset.
  3. Naming a feeling helps you hold it. A guess is fine (“something like worried”), and a more exact word than “bad” or “fine” points to what would help.

Talk it over

  1. Where in your body do you tend to notice a strong feeling first?
  2. “Is this the fire, or the toast?” When has a feeling been right about something mattering, but wrong about the details?
  3. Anger is often a cover for hurt or worry. Why might anger feel easier to show?
  4. What’s the difference between feeling angry and acting on it? What helps you wait before you act?
  5. Some families and cultures don’t talk much about feelings. How else do people show what they feel?

Try this week

Once a day, name one feeling, out loud or on paper. Try one word more exact than “bad” or “fine”: “left out”, “let down”, “nervous”. A guess still counts. You don’t have to share it with anyone.

Teens version

Before a test, your stomach knots. Is it fear, or did you skip breakfast? After a group chat goes quiet, you feel “annoyed”. Underneath, is it feeling left out? Try: “I think what I’m feeling is…” and finish it with one word. Nobody else needs to see it.

No one has to share, and passing is always fine. If a feeling is too big to handle, or you are afraid of someone at home, tell a trusted adult or see spreadloveandacceptance.com/safety.html. In the US, call or text 988, or call 1-800-799-7233 (text START to 88788) about abuse. In the UK, call Childline on 0800 1111 (under 19s) or Samaritans on 116 123. Anywhere else: findahelpline.com.

Free, no sign-up: spreadloveandacceptance.com/book/understanding-1-feelings.html

See the lesson plan

Part Three for schools: a reading order

Part Three of the book, “Understanding people”, has chapters that work well as a short unit. Read them in this order; each builds on the one before.

  1. How feelings work (Chapter 1): feelings as signals, the body, and naming what you feel. Handout 7 goes with it.
  2. Stress and the nervous system (Chapter 2): what stress does to the body and how to settle it.
  3. How communication works (Chapter 4): listening, checking instead of guessing, and repairing mix-ups.
  4. Anger (Chapter 13): what anger protects, and handling it without hurting anyone. Handout 5 goes with it.

A simple 50-minute lesson

One way to use How feelings work, with handout 7. Swap in any chapter.

  1. Opener (5 minutes). “Think of a time your body reacted before you knew why: a racing heart, a hot face. Just think, no need to share.”
  2. Read one idea together (10 minutes). Show one idea card, such as “Naming a feeling helps you hold it.” Read it aloud, including the example.
  3. Practise in pairs (15 minutes). One person describes a made-up situation. The other says back what they heard and guesses one feeling word: “So you felt left out?” Swap.
  4. Talk it over (15 minutes). Use two questions from handout 7. Anyone can pass.
  5. Exit line (5 minutes). Each student writes one feeling word they could use this week, privately.

On a projector or a shared screen

Keeping it safe in a classroom

Talking about feelings and families can stir things up. A few habits help:

Questions teachers often ask

Can I use this with my class?

Yes. You may print and share pages and handouts for non-commercial teaching and group use, with credit. Keep the credit line and the safety notes, and don’t charge for copies. The Terms of Service say this in full.

Do students need an account?

No. Nothing on the site asks for a sign-up. Anything a student types into a tool stays in that browser on that device, and is never sent to the site.

Is it suitable for teenagers?

The pages listed here are written in plain words for anyone. Each group handout has a Teens version with school examples, and there is a page written for teens. Read anything first and choose what fits your class.

How do I show it on a projector?

Add ?work=1 to the end of a link for the plain version with no cartoons, or turn on Quiet mode in Settings. Make the text bigger in Settings or with Ctrl and plus.

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Last updated: October 2026