I was inspired to write this blog post after Meritxell Blanco's presentation "Taking care of students' emotional well-being" at the annual TESOL-Spain Convention 2022.
The concept of emotional intelligence has become a central topic in recent years. It is considered that early childhood is a phase of human life where there is a high potential for developing emotional intelligence.
According to Goleman (1998, quoted in Williams et al., 2015, p.94), emotional intelligence is “the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships”. There are four defining aspects of emotional intelligence:
self-awareness - knowing our own emotions;
self-regulation - controlling our reactions;
empathy - understanding the emotions of others;
relationship management.
Emotional intelligence is key to our students’ personal and emotional development and therefore to their learning. As teachers, we can help our learners develop emotional intelligence through classroom activities, songs, and stories. In her talk, Meritxell mentioned The Colour Monster by Anna Llenas. I like using this picturebook with early primary students because it explores feelings in a fun way and helps the children to become more aware of what other children are experiencing and thinking. So, I'm going to share my teaching notes in case you'd like to use the story with your learners!
LESSON 1
1) To set the context and introduce the story.
Tell the children that they are going to listen to a story about a monster. Invite them to do a picture dictation to find out about the monster. Once their pictures are completed, show the illustration. The children compare their drawings with the illustration. Hold an open-class discussion (How do you think he feels?), the children make predictions.
2) Read the story and discuss how the predictions are similar and different.
3) To check the children's understanding and reinforce a lexical set for feelings and colours (A (blue) monster is (sad)).
Note: You can either go through the illustrations in the book, use the author's cut-out material http://www.annallenas.com/ilustracion-editorial/Mascares_EMC_A4_Cast.pdf or encourage the children to make their own flashcards (monsters/colours).
4) To provide the students with speaking practice – asking and answering basic questions about feelings.
Play MIMING GAME. Encourage the children to use full forms (Are you happy? - Yes, I am. / No, I’m not)
5) To provide the children with writing practice in the context of feelings.
Label the feelings. The children identify the colours + feelings.
LESSON 2
1) To create a positive and supportive atmosphere and to provide the learners with speaking practice in the context of feelings.
Circle time. The children pass a balloon and ask “How do you feel? Why?”
Once everyone has spoken, ask them “How is (Ana) feeling?” (active listening). Get the children to reply when someone is not feeling well (empathy and social skills).
Note: The children might find it difficult to answer in English, however, it is a good way to identify and teach new vocabulary related to their lives.
2) To provide the learners with reading practice and identify their difficulties with lexis (pronunciation).
Choose a colour. Ask the learners to find the corresponding paragraph and read it aloud.
3) To introduce a lexical set for actions.
Go through the illustrations/flashcards and ask "What do you do when you’re (happy)? - I (laugh, jump, dance)". Add sounds and gestures.
4) To practise the language of description and action.
Use a “TV screen”.
(Source: Workshop/Handout, Cambridge English: YL Listening Skills EMC/6976d/OY12)
Stick the TV screen on the board, stick one of the illustrations/flashcards into the “screen” of the TV. "Turn on" the TV, touch different buttons and elicit the information about the picture. For example,
(visuals) – It’s a yellow monster.
(sound) – I laugh when I’m happy.
(action) – I dance when I’m happy.
(feelings) – A yellow monster is happy.
First, open-class practice. Then, hand the activity over to the children.
5) To increase and personalise the lexical set for actions and things related to the feelings.
In pairs, the learners think of two more actions/things for each feeling. Open-class discussion.
LESSON 3
1) To introduce an exam style activity through a game
Board a list of jumbled words (yellow, blue, red, black, green). In teams, the children unjumble the words aloud varying the tone of their voice to express different feelings (for example, red/angry).
2) To provide the children with reading practice of short sentences from the story.
Ask the children to draw six jars on the board. Use the illustrations/flashcards to label the jars. In pairs, the children read the sentences and stick them to the corresponding jar on the board.
Sentences:
You laugh, you jump, you dance!
It can make you feel alone.
It can make you want to stomp and shout!
It can make you feel very small.
You breathe slowly and deeply.
3) To prompt the children to continue their own imaginative and creative responses to the story.
Draw the children's attention to the 6th jar and show the pink monster. Read the last paragraph: “But what’s this? You look different, Colour Monster! Er… how do you feel now?”.
Open-class discussion:
-What feeling corresponds to pink?
-What can you do when you feel this way?
In pairs or groups, the children create a feeling and things that can be done when feeling that way.
4) The children make a collage to represent their ideas.
5) To provide the children with speaking practice when giving a presentation about their collage.
LESSON 4
1) To revise a lexical set for body parts and introduce the new words (horn, wing, tail).
The children create their own monster.
Steps:
- throw the dice for each body part and complete the table;
- draw a monster using the information in the table;
- colour the monster (How does your monster feel? What colour is he?)
2) To provide the children with writing practice when giving basic descriptions.
The children complete the text by filling in the blanks.
My monster is called ______________. He has ______________ legs and ______________ hands. He has ______________ eyes and ______________ ears. He has ______________ wings and ______________ horns. He also has ______________ tails. He is ______________ (colour) because he feels ______________.
3) To provide the children with speaking practice when giving basic descriptions.
The children ask questions about their classmates’ monsters (e.g. “How many (eyes) has he got? – “He’s got 3 eyes”).
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