Emotions can be hard to understand, and Robert J. Burch Elementary kindergarteners use color monsters to discuss their feelings.

School counselor Jessica Mull often works with students on identifying their own feelings and emotions, especially at an early age. This gives them tools to more clearly communicate how they are feeling and work through those ‘tough’ emotions with appropriate coping strategies.

For the color activity, students share how they are feeling that day, then read a pop-up book called “The Color Monster.” In the story, the monster’s emotions get all mixed up, and he needs help to sort through them.

The classes use clues from the book (facial cues, body language, colors, etc.) to determine how the monster is feeling. They discuss having all different kinds of feelings of their own throughout the day, using emotions from the book or other things they feel. They use stuffed animals with an emotion written on the back and a face on the front to display the words for everyone to see.

Students are asked to create three of their own color monsters based on three feelings they have the most. Some students use the examples on the board, and some come up with their own. To cap off the lesson, they help ‘color’ a coloring book, using “The Magic Coloring Book of Feelings.”