John Farrell: Teaching Ideas and Activities: Feelings That I Have

Sometimes I feel like an eagle. I can see the whole world as I glide.
Sometimes I feel like a rabbit that's scared looking for a place to hide.
Sometimes I feel like a lion. Everybody listens when I speak.
Sometimes I feel like the cat has got my tongue. My voice is small and weak.

Sometimes I'm up. Sometimes I'm down. Sometimes I spin around and round.
Sometimes I'm happy. Sometimes I'm sad, feeling the feelings that I have.

Sometimes I feel like an oak tree. My branches reach to the sky.
Sometimes I feel like a jellyfish just riding the waves as they go by.
Sometimes I feel like a beaver. I can change if I just keep working hard.
But sometimes I feel like a snowman in the sun. I'm here now but soon I'll be gone.

Sometimes I feel like the sunrise. Everything I touch is warm and bright.
But sometimes I feel like a dark and cloudy day. I can't get anything right.
Sometimes I feel like a song that fills the air. I'm a melody, a harmony, a verse.
But sometimes I feel like a worm on a hook.
This ain't much fun but I suppose it could be worse.

Suggested Activity: Tell students that songwriter John Farrell wrote this song after going through a day when he had very strong and contrasting emotions. Early in the day John saw a bald eagle flying over a pond near his home on Prince Edward Island in Canada. The eagle looked spectacular as it kept circling and gliding. Because John loves to watch birds, he was excited and happy and ran into the house to get his family so they could see the eagle too. Later the same day a good friend of John's called with sad news. She said that her elderly dad had fallen and was in the hospital. John went from feeling as high as an eagle to feeling scared like a rabbit being chased. A few days later he wrote this song comparing his feelings to the natural world and things he has observed.

Ask students to talk about their feelings. You can make a list of feelings and organize them so they are contrasting, such as happy and sad, lonely and loved, worried and content, and so on. Work as a group to make up your own poems or song lyrics using similes and the same format as this song. These can be illustrated and made into posters or books.

Sometimes I feel like _____________________

Next tell why you feel that way _____________________

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	Feelings That I Have Featured on the CD, "Touch The Sky," Words and Music Copyright John Farrell