Elise came to talk to Year 5 to help them understand their feelings more, and how they can affect us.
She referred to a book called “The Colour Monster” by Anna Llenas which helps the children recognise feelings in terms of colours. We thought about where in our bodies we feel different emotions – our head, tummy or chest.
Once we had identified different emotions, we considered ways to deal with them without upsetting anyone else. Elise explained to the children that the green monster is the best one to be in a classroom environment as that is when we are calm, happy and focussed on our work; it is when we have optimum concentration. To demonstrate this, we played a memory game, where everyone was calm, focussed and fully engaged in the task. She explained that if we were feeling red, blue, yellow or black, we wouldn’t have been able to perform as well on that task.
We practiced calming techniques using our hands, breathing or counting, to return to our green monsters.
Year 5 thoroughly enjoyed finding out more about how we can be more responsible for our feelings and be considerate of others, nicely supporting what we learn about in our PATHS sessions.