The healing power of art
Lesson plan overview
This English lesson plan explores art as a therapeutic tool to help people cope with emotions. It includes useful vocabulary about art supplies, idioms with colors used to express emotions, a short video and different art therapy activities ideas. You can combine it with the worksheet “Idioms: art and creativity“, “Phrasal verbs: Psychology“, as well as the video-based lesson plan: “The benefits of being in nature“.
Vocabulary: After an initial discussion, students learn vocabulary about art supplies (watercolors, canvas, stencils, clay etc.). Then they look into a few sentences describing the benefits of art and learn expressions used to talk about emotions (cope with, take your mind off things, me-time). They practice with a gap-fill exercise and a few conversation questions given.
Video: Next, students watch a short video “The mental health benefits of art” and complete 2 different activities. (a gap-fill and a note-taking activity).
After the video, students look at different art therapy ideas and discuss which ones they have tried in the past, which ones they would like to try and the supplies they would need to do each one.
Idioms: Students learn different idioms related to colors and emotions (see red, green with envy, tickled pink, off-color). First they look at different colors and talk about the emotions each one might represent. Then they are given the idioms and after that they choose the correct idiom to complete 7 sentences.
The last 2 activities are speaking activities: Students complete a few sentences so that they are true for them and lastly, they look at 4 photos and describe the emotions people are feeling using the idioms they’ve learnt.
The conversation cards provide additional speaking opportunities as well as a way to revise the target vocabulary from this lesson in another class.
This lesson plan will work great in combination with the lesson plans: “Do limits boost creativity“, “Time to take a mental health day?“, “Self-care” and the worksheets “Idioms: Art and creativity” and “Phrasal verbs: emotions“
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
Pre-class activities
All video-based ESL lesson plans include online pre-class activities, which are FREE and can be completed without registration. Perfect for teachers who wish to embrace the blended learning approach. By providing students with resources and engagement opportunities before the actual class session, educators can foster active participation, enhance comprehension, and optimise in-class discussions.
The pre-class activities are optional: if you choose not to assign them, or your students don’t complete them, it will not disturb the flow of the class. You can find and review the pre-class activities for this lesson plan here:
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In-class activities
Additional resources
Each video-based lesson plan includes links to additional resources (videos and articles), which are FREE can be found online (in the pre-class activities page. These links aim to extend the learning experience, enabling students to connect classroom knowledge with real-world applications.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
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