The Colour Monster

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She loves naming the different colours, feelings and completing the little actions along with each, I.e. taking a deep breath, stomping or shouting ‘not fair!’, as we read through the book. It’s really helped her to gain a good understanding of feelings and she does now use the words to describe feelings she and others are experiencing, which is lovely to see.

Add googley eyes to any art projectsto make fun monsters. Here is an example of a great googley eye monster: Coffee filter monsters The format of the book allows for a conversation with children about managing their feelings 'putting them into bottles' and discussing why they might be feeling a particular emotion. Cut out the pictures and fill the jars with items that represent the different feelings in the story. The illustrations are unique and pleasing too. This isn’t the pop up version, but the illustrations are designed to look like painted cardboard cutouts, which is a refreshing and interesting design choice.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.

Think of other emotions and choose colours that might represent them (e.g. frustration, disgust, envy). Remember to read The Colour Monster Goes to School and try our related ideas too! Teaching Ideas and Resources: English Love the collage-y illustrations of this picture book, but the text has some troubling issues. While it is vital to teach children to identify their emotions, it is just as important to help them understand that it is normal to feel more than one single emotion at a time, even about the same thing/person/idea. furthermore, labeling emotions with specific colors doesn't work as a one-size-fits-all solution, since color is a very personal experience; people feel very differently about the same color. Telling children that blue is sadness will confuse children who experience blue as tranquility, or power, or curiosity, or any number of other emotions. This book goes so far as to tell children how to experience certain emotions: Here’s hoping this activity brings you and your clients some superpowers to help untangle those messy, chaotic, and confusing feelings!For an even better way to find KS2 resources, discover tailored suggestions, and much more - visit the KS2 resource HUB! GO TO KS2 HUB Have your students identify basic emotions as they match assorted colors and emotions to the correct monster. Once they’ve matched everything correctly, they can spend time coloring in their worksheet and, in small groups, discussing when they feel certain emotions. Recap on the story of ‘The Colour Monster’. Parents may want to read the story again with the children or invite the children to tell them the story, using their own home-made monsters from last week’s resources. By using cardboard, yarn, felt, a marker, and glue, little learners can design and craft their very own Color Monsters! They can use these creatures to put on an at-home, or in-class, puppet show and better yet; use the color monsters to help them verbalize different emotions.

Introduce the story, ‘The Colour Monster’ by Anna Llenas or listen to it being read here. There are some questions in the clip after the story which might help to scaffold a discussion around the story. Sometimes feelings get… all tangled up. This can be confusing and sometimes we need help untangling them and sorting them all out. Enter “ The Color Monster” by Anna Llenas! This book is AMAZING and as I talk about here and here bibliotherapy is such a wonderful practice that is so adaptable to provide as a therapeutic approach in all sorts of settings – office, in home, at school, and of course Tele-Play! 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. This fun activity has learners practicing their reading skills as they work to match the speech bubble to the correct monster. They will also employ fine motor skills as they use scissors to cut the monsters and speech bubbles out. Play Simon Says with the Color Monster’s help and visually act out a series of emotions! For example, using the little pink monster displayed below, the teacher will call out, “The Color Monster is in love”, and students will give themselves or a friend a big hug!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? If you’re looking for a more advanced activity to pair with the reading of this wonderful book, then look no further! This activity requires students to listen to the story and then spend time completing this fill-in-the-blank worksheet; inferring the monster’s feelings from what they have heard. 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. At the start of the story, the Colour Monster is feeling confused. When have you felt confused? What did you do in this situation? What can we do when we feel confused in the future? Review story vocabulary. Here are some words in the story you may want to define: emotions, jumbled, separate, shines, twinkles, happiness, sadness, lonely, washes over, alone, burns, stamp out, unfair, disappear, fear, afraid, courage, shadows, calm, quiet, swaying, breathe, peace, different. (I would choose just a few.)

As a group, we discussed the interesting allocation of colour to the different emotions. Children who are particularly struggling could simply assign themselves a colour for their feeling. However, I wonder how useful this colour allocation is, as some children might have a favourite colour associated with a negative emotion. This book is a wonderful story about a “Color Monster” who is full of mixed up colors and emotions. A little girl takes the monster by the hand and gently helps the Color Monster untangle and separate out all of these feelings and put them into jars. The Color Monster by Anna Llenas teaches abour big emotions in a simple way for young children. In the story, an adorable monster has mixed-up feelings and the author helps to sort them out. Happiness is like the sun, anger is a burning fire, and calm is like the leaves swaying in the wind. Young children may not be able to tell you exactly what they are feeling, but they can use the concepts in this book to help express themselves. Taking time to validate our learners makes them feel seen, heard, and cared for. Label an assortment of jars using a series of emotional faces. Over the course of a week, have your learners drop items, or their names, into the jar that they feel best represents their feeling that day. At the end of the week help them tally up the items and analyze their predominant emotion.Put 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. Practice drawing faces that show different emotions. Can you draw a happy face? Can you draw an angry face? Use a mirror to see how your facial expression can change to show emotions. It’s important to remind young learners that, at times, we may feel more than 1 emotion, or may not even be able to verbalize how we’re feeling at all! This hands-on activity enforces this notion visually by having learners attach colorful felt squares to a Color Monster cut-out. For an even better way to find EYFS resources, discover tailored suggestions, and much more - visit the EYFS resource HUB! GO TO EYFS HUB