Author: Dr Zeinab Tahir Mohamed (Sudan) | Published on 24 December 2025
Read what Zeinab says about this activity
This activity focuses on writing informal emails, enhancing emotional expression, and understanding the appropriate use of emojis in communication. It also develops cultural awareness by sharing personal feelings and experiences.
Stage 1: Warm Up (Pre-teach)
Engage students by asking questions about their use of emojis in texting and discussing how emojis can add emotion and context to messages.
Students respond to the question and share experiences related to emoji usage in texting.
Discuss how emojis can add emotion and context to messages.
Introduce the lesson; explain that today’s focus is on writing an informal email—including emojis—to make the email more relatable and fun.
Stage 2: Direct Instruction
(before you start this stage, you will need to have the email on display such as on the board)
Start reading through the email on the board. Stop at some of the emoticons and ask how they think the writer was feeling when they wrote that sentence.
Highlight the use of informal language.
Also focus on the following:
- Recipient: to (person)
- Subject: the purpose (why you are writing the email)
- Greeting (e.g., "Hi", "Hey") (usually informal)
- Body (share personal stories, questions)
- Closing (e.g., "Take care", "Love")(usually informal)
- Signature (first name /nickname)
Stage 3: Free Practice
Tell students they’re going to write an informal email to a family member sharing exciting home news, using some emojis – but they will get some input from another student.
Tell each student to draw one fun activity, one household chore and one unfortunate event on a scrap of paper, they only have one minute to think and two minutes to draw!
Be strict when applying the time limit. Sometimes bad drawings can make the activity more fun.
The students must exchange their drawings with a student who is seated far away from them in the classroom.
The students must write an email (including emojis) telling the story of what happened to them yesterday, based on the pictures.
After the students have written their stories, they can get together with the students they exchanged pictures with. They can read the emails and see if their pictures have been correctly interpreted. It can be a source of amusement if the student who wrote the email misinterpreted the pictures they were given.
Optional extension
Ask the students to take another student’s email home with them and write a reply to it.