It is not an easy task for a small child to understand their emotions. That is why we love this book ‘The colour monster’ by Anna Llenas. The story of this cute little creature’s day aims to help our own little monsters raise their emotional awareness and make facing their feelings just that little bit less of a monstrous task! Why get emotional about it? We meet the colour monster at the start of a day that is threatening to be rather confusing for him. This baffled little monster is in a bit of a frenzy over his feelings. Children will love to develop their emotional language skills in your Feelings and Emotions area when it is themed around the famous Colour Monsters!

For an even better way to find KS2 resources, discover tailored suggestions, and much more - visit the KS2 resource HUB! GO TO KS2 HUB Emotions, Expressions, and Feelings Worksheet - help children recognise characteristics of different emotions with this brilliant worksheet. How does music make you feel? Think of different songs/styles of music that make you happy, sad, angry etc. For more Autism emotions activities, look here. You might also like this Restorative Practice Activity or this lovely Palette of Feelings Art Activity with Feelings Monsters. More resources like thisPut your little one’s memory skills to the test with this sweet monster card match-up! Shuffle the cards so that the pairs of emotions are separated. Allow learners to study the card placement before you flip them upside down and then challenge them to find the matching pairs. Here are some other early writing activities for children to try during an All About Me or Ourselves topic: Invite the children to discuss their feelings. Sometimes we can feel a bit mixed up like the Colour Monster. It might help to have a friend, older brother or sister or a trusted adult help the child to sort out their feelings at those times, just like the Colour Monster and the little girl. Talk about the things which make the children feel happy, sad, angry, fearful and calm and loved.

For an even better way to find KS1 resources, discover tailored suggestions, and much more - visit the KS1 resource HUB! GO TO KS1 HUB Read The Color Monster book to students. Take another look through the book – noticing the color used to represent each emotion and how the illustrator use texture and imagery to represent each emotion? The little girl puts the Colour Monster’s feelings into separate jars. Use the template below to draw things that make you happy/ angry/sad etc. The next sheet is all about taking time to separate out and honor each feeling. With the My Feeling Jar worksheet you can clearly identify each feeling experienced and how much of each feeling. You can go deeper with young people and identify triggers, how they felt it in their bodies, warning signs of these feelings, and choices that might be helpful vs unhelpful to honor what is going on for them over the week.Why not create a display of the children's feelings monsters? You could use these Emotions and Feelings Photo Display Cards to support the children as they complete the sheet and display alongside the feelings monsters to further prompt discussion. Did you know that Twinkl uploads hundreds of resources every month? Make sure you don’t miss out on any and sign-up today! Understanding our own emotions and the emotions of others is called Theory of Mind (ToM) . With research highlighting links between ToM and language skills, it has become a hot topic within speech and language therapy. ToM starts to develop quite early on and can be encouraged by talking to our children about their emotions and the emotions of others. From around 4 years of age children might start to develop skills in thinking about how another person feels. Using books at this stage can be lots of fun and help them on their way to understanding emotions. The colour monster

The colour monster book provides a lovely fun read with lots of talking points. You can try some of the below: Make a list of words that the author links with each colour, e.g. yellow = bright and light, blue = gentle and alone. Can you think of synonyms for these words? This animated video is wonderful for introducing the ways in which we lose our cool. It helps little minds understand that it’s perfectly normal to do so from time to time, but also encourages them to think about how they might rein in those big feelings.What started out as a daunting day, turns in to a vibrant and educational journey for the colour monster. Together with the little girl they have organized his emotions and they are no longer tangled up. His world is much clearer.

Encouraging freedom of expression, especially at a young age, is very important. This activity encourages learners to use their imagination and tap into their own emotions. Guide learners on how to draw a funky monster by first giving a demonstration, and then handing out art supplies and letting them take the wheel as they create their own. They can choose to share this using the large class jar, they can also get help and advice about how to self-regulate their emotions or share a worry in the worry box. Cut out the pictures and fill the jars with items that represent the different feelings in the story. Whilst giving the feelings a name, she explains what the feeling might make you want to do e.g. “anger can make you want to stomp”, thus helping children to recognize and identity with the different feelings. This could act as a great prompt to get your child to talk about what anger or another emotion makes them want to do. In this story, yellow refers to happiness, red is for anger and blue is linked to sadness. Do you agree with those colour choices? Why?All of our resources are made by experienced teachers and align with the Australian Curriculum. So you can rest easy knowing that you are using suitable and reliable resources to teach the children in your class. How to encourage social-emotional learning It is a fabulous book for initiating social emotional learning activities with children in the early grades and the basis for this fun social emotional learning activity. The Color Monster Emotions Activity: Free Printable Prepare the activity This feelings monster worksheet is a lovely way to encourage children to talk about feelings and emotions.