The Colour Monster

In the Nurture Groups, we use The Colour Monster book with all children to begin to recognize and relate to emotions.

Many young people can have difficulties with emotional recognition and regulation. There are steps you can take to tutor children about emotions through your everyday life and include a little extra by introducing activities around emotions and positive language. Remember all emotions are normal and ok, it is how we deal with them and express them that matters, are we expressing them in a healthy age-appropriate way?  

You can simply read the book or include activities around the emotions. Here are some ideas we use in school:  

• Look in the mirror as you are reading and show faces that match the emotion. 
• Use coloured sheer scarves to look through and explore colours that match the emotion. 
• Make sensory bottles to match the colour of emotions in the book, they can also be used as calming bottles later or a way to say how your child is feeling if they will not or cannot vocalize. Ensure tops are secure and tapped shut for safety.  
• Use red balloons, draw, or stick angry faces onto them.  
• Make, a blue picture to represent sadness. 
• Decorate biscuits or cupcakes and use yellow icing with different sprinkles for happiness. 
• Make your own mixed-up monsters. 

It is important to acknowledge and validate feelings expressed and help children cope with them positively. Exploring and talking about feelings from an early age can help them to open up for further discussions as they grow and mature. It can help them manage their emotions and cope better with any worries. It will also support them in reading and recognizing how others feel.  

• Notice and name your feelings. Notice how you feel as things happen.   
• Track one emotion. Pick one emotion — like feeling happy or angry. 
• Name each emotion and learn innovative words for feelings. 
• Keep a feelings journal, you can do this with colours, sticks or a drawing of a face. 
• Notice feelings in art, songs, and movies. 

Next step: Talk about each feeling, what makes them feel this way, what can they do to manage this feeling?