Our Colourful Week of Emotions!

This week in the EYFS, our focus has been emotions and feelings, inspired by our Book of the Week, The Colour Monster by Anna Llenas. We have been learning to recognise, name and understand different emotions, exploring how we can express our feelings and recognise how others might be feeling too. We have spent some time looking at our Zones of Regulation, understanding what they are and how we can identify which zone we're in and what we can do to get back to the green zone to be 'ready to learn'.

During our morning Clever Fingers activities, the children decorated giant Colour Monsters using a variety of creative materials. During child-initiated learning, we have enjoyed exploring emotion cards, colouring and drawing different facial expressions, creating our own playdough Colour Monsters and getting crafty at the art table!

Outside, we have been busy experimenting with coloured water, using pipettes to mix primary colours and discover what new colours we could make. It has been wonderful to see the children's understanding of colour mixing develop, whilst also strengthening their fine motor skills through squeezing and controlling the pipettes.

In our Oracy learning, we explored non-verbal communication and how facial expressions can tell us how somebody is feeling. Working in groups of three, the children took turns making different 'feeling faces' whilst their friends guessed the emotion. This was a fantastic opportunity to develop confidence, observation skills and turn-taking.

All of this learning links closely to our Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) Early Learning Goals, particularly Self-Regulation and Building Relationships, as children learn to understand their own feelings and show empathy towards others. It also supports our Communication and Language (C&L) Early Learning Goals of Listening, Attention and Understanding and Speaking, as children develop their emotional vocabulary, express their ideas and listen to others.

The children have had a lovely week, full of colourful, creative and meaningful learning! As always, the photographs show just a small snapshot of the many wonderful activities and experiences we've enjoyed.

Why not ask your child, "What colour is your Colour Monster feeling today?"

EYFS - The Colour Monser