Color Monsters

Students are building their feelings vocabulary. They are encouraged to practice identifying and naming the feelings that they are experiencing. Students are given an opportunity to practice noticing what is physically happening when they have a feeling. They may feel their muscles tense up or their face gets red when they are mad or they notice butterflies in their stomachs and sweaty hands when they are nervous. When they recognize what feeling they are experiencing, they are more equipped to manage their feelings in an effective way. 

The story that was in the spotlight for this classroom visit was The Color Monster, written by Anna Llenas. This fun picture book explores how a monster learns to sort out his mixed up feelings. The story connects feelings with colors and experiences while fostering their emotional literacy. 

While at home, families can utilize literature, tv shows or movies to provide great opportunities for identifying characters’ feelings, what clues led you to think they felt a certain way, how they handled the feeling. Identifying some other options to cope with the feeling allows reinforcement of building emotional literacy skills.