In an animated encounter with "The Color Monster" by Anna Llenas, young students explored a book that dives into the world of emotions. Through a collective learning journey, they discovered the significance of understanding and expressing their feelings, and crafted their own colour monsters, each representing a different emotion:
"My monster feels calm and mostly happy, but sometimes my hands and feet feel mixed up and might accidentally hit or kick my friends."
"My monster is red hot mad, just like fire!"
"My monster feels scared, so he's hiding in all black."
These conversations provided a platform for children to explore complex emotions in a safe and creative way. One child even brought colour monster puppets to the book area, initiating discussions about feelings of love, anger and sadness. Furthermore, children engaged in sorting objects into jars to represent the colour monster's mixed-up emotions, fostering opportunities for role-playing and reinforcing concepts of emotional regulation.
Collectively, the children collaborated on crafting a colossal colour monster with mixed emotions. Through colouring and discussions, they developed a deeper understanding of their feelings and learned the importance of expressing and respecting emotions.
