Identifying Happy FeelingsKindergarten Self-Regulation Read-Aloud Lesson and Activities- The Pout Pout Fish

IDENTIFYING HAPPY FEELINGS
Kindergarten Self-Regulation Read-Aloud and Drawing Lesson

Help young learners recognize, describe and communicate feelings of happiness with this warm, ready-to-teach Kindergarten self-regulation lesson.

Created around The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen, this resource combines an engaging read-aloud conversation with a meaningful “What Makes Me Happy?” drawing activity. Children notice possible facial, body and contextual clues connected to happiness while learning that joy can feel and look different for different people.

Students may communicate through drawing, speech, gestures, visual selection, dictation or AAC. Sharing personal experiences is always optional.

WHAT’S INCLUDED

• Complete educator lesson plan

• Big idea and learning focus

• Student-friendly learning goal

• Success criteria

• Materials and emotion vocabulary

• Minds On emotion activity

• Before-, during- and after-reading prompts

• Step-by-step drawing activity

• Consolidation prompts

• Assessment look-fors

• Observation, conversation and product documentation

• Differentiation for a range of learners

• Multilingual learner support

• Communication and accessibility options

• Emotional-safety considerations

• Beginning, developing and independently applying next steps

• Extension activity

• Home connection

• Ontario Kindergarten Curriculum 2026 connections

• U.S. Common Core Kindergarten connections

• What Makes Me Happy? student template

• Four Happiness Wall contribution cards

FEATURED READ ALOUD

The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen

The book is not included and must be obtained separately.

SKILLS EXPLORED

• Identifying happy feelings

• Noticing facial, body and contextual clues

• Developing emotion vocabulary

• Communicating verbally and non-verbally

• Listening and responding during a read-aloud

• Expressing an idea through drawing

• Adding meaningful details to artwork

• Recognizing that happiness is personal

• Understanding that people may express happiness differently

ONTARIO KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM 2026

This resource includes meaningful connections to:

• Strand A: Foundations of Language and Mathematics

• A1: Oral and Non-Verbal Communication

• Strand C: Self-Regulation and Well-Being

• C16.5: Communicating what makes them happy or unhappy

• Strand D: Belonging and Contributing

• D19.2: Communicating personal preferences

U.S. COMMON CORE KINDERGARTEN

Relevant connections include:

• RL.K.1: Asking and answering questions about key details

• SL.K.1: Participating in collaborative conversations

• SL.K.4: Describing familiar people, places, things and events

• W.K.3: Using drawing, dictating and writing to communicate an event

• L.K.6: Using vocabulary acquired through conversations and read-alouds

DIFFERENTIATION AND ACCESSIBILITY

Students may participate through:

• Speech

• Gestures

• Visual selection

• Drawing

• Labelling

• Dictation

• AAC

• Adult scribing

The lesson includes visual choices, sentence frames, adapted-material suggestions, multilingual support and extensions for children ready to explain or compare their thinking.

PERFECT FOR

• Kindergarten and Pre-K

• Ontario FDK classrooms

• Whole-group instruction

• Small-group learning

• Self-regulation lessons

• Social-emotional learning

• Beginning-of-the-year routines

• Read-aloud extensions

• Guidance lessons

• Homeschool Kindergarten

• Early intervention

• Supply-teacher plans

The optional Happiness Wall cards allow children to continue noticing and documenting joyful classroom moments after the lesson is complete.

PLEASE NOTE

The Pout-Pout Fish is not included with this resource. This independently created educational resource is not affiliated with, authorized by or endorsed by the author or publisher.