The following descriptions of the six basic emotions are adapted from guidelines established by Ekman and Friesen (1975). This list is designed to be used by the teacher as a guide for discussing facial cues with the students. The cues have been written in the simple language, but you may need to do some adjusting for the children in your class. It works best to model the expression as you verbally and physically point out the cues. For clarity and simplicity, teachers may not want to point out all the cues to the children, but focus on the most telling and easy to describe two or three cues.
1. Happy:
The corners of mouth go up in a smile.
The teeth may or may not show.
A line (wrinkle) goes from the nose past the corners of the mouth.
The cheeks go up and out.
There are wrinkles below the eyes.
There are wrinkles at the corners of the eyes.
2. Sad:
The corners of the mouth go down in a frown.
The inner corners of the eyebrows may go up.
The eyes may look down and/or tear.
3. Angry:
The lips are pressed together, open or turned down in a frown.
The eyebrows are down.
There are wrinkles between the eyebrows.
The eyes may be slightly closed.
The eyes may have a hard stare.
The nostrils may be flared.
4. Surprised:
The mouth is open wide.
The eyes are open wide (often showing white around the pupil).
The eyebrows go up high in a curve.
Wrinkles go across the forehead.
5. Afraid:
The mouth is open and drawn back.
The eyes are open and the inner corners go up.
The eyebrows are raised and drawn together.
There are wrinkles in the middle of the forehead.
6. Disgusted:
The top lip goes up.
The lower lip pushes up or goes down and sticks out.
The nose is wrinkled.
The cheeks go up.
The eyebrows are down.