For an absolutely wonderful local independent book shop and for World Book Day, I made a video (still available here) where I spoke about several of my books and set a ‘task’ relating to each book. I just can’t help my teacheriness! For my book, It’s OK to Cry the task to set was obvious. My favourite page in the book is called A park full of feelings and it includes a double page spread with children going about their business in a park, labelled with what they are feeling. The obvious discussion with a young child would be to unpick why each child might be feeling what they are.
So the task I set was for children to draw their own park full of feelings. But there’s no need to stop at a park. You could do a classroom, a garden, a street or a beach. Alternatively, and more interestingly, you could create a collage over a period of time, set in any space/room, which you and your child add characters experiencing different emotions. This will increase your child’s emotion vocabulary.
Some of the emotions that are easiest to indicate a trigger for in a drawing include:
- Surprised
- Disappointed
- Happy
- Confused
- Frustrated
- Nervous
- Scared
- Brave
- Curious
- Shocked
- Playful
- Relaxed
- Amused
- Angry
- Relieved
- Envy
- Lonely
- Worried
- Amazed
- Relieved
- Interested
- Proud