The Colour Monster

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Look at the illustrations of the Colour Monster on the inside covers. Can you draw your own pictures and put them together into a gallery? 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. Here’s hoping this activity brings you and your clients some superpowers to help untangle those messy, chaotic, and confusing feelings!

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. 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. Another thing that is just fantastic about this book is the use of metaphor. It compares anger to a fire you might want to stomp out, sadness to a rainy day, and calm like leaves swaying in the wind. If you are doing any sort of metaphor work with kids this is a GREAT book to get the wheels turning!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. We have used the idea in the story to help the children with their emotional development. There are large colour monster displays containing pictures and words in each classroom so the children can add their name card to the emotion they are feeling. At a point during the day, an adult will offer to discuss how the child is feeling, particularly if the emotion is a negative one.

Don’t forget to explore our ideas and resources based on the original Colour Monster book too! Teaching Ideas and Resources: EnglishSometimes 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! Cut out the pictures and fill the jars with items that represent the different feelings in the story.