Last week, for World Book Day 2025, I was invited to The Clare School. The Clare school is a specialist complex needs school that supports pupils who have learning difficulties with physical, medical and sensory needs (either hearing, visual or dual/multi-sensory impairment). Consequently I assumed my input needed to mostly rely most on touch and smell but with sound and (unavoidable) visuals too.
Having only been a mainstream and teacher in a PRU, and having delivered author sessions only in mainstream and schools with children with learning difficulties, this was new ground for me.
After some thought, I decided to create some ’emotionscapes’: wooden boards with different textural landscapes that children can feel around with their fingertips. These were linked to the feelings in my books: How Are You Feeling Today? and How Are You Feeling Now? I really enjoyed making them although I think my household was somewhat confused while I was constructing them – especially as the smell of chocolate filled up the house!
During the day, each room I walked into had children of quite different learning abilities, so in some rooms, it was all about a sensory experience but in others I got to talk about emotions and play a few games. I rounded off the day answering questions about how books are created: from being an idea in my head, to a book you can hold.
So here are my ’emotionscapes’…
Amazed or possibly overwhelmed!
Smell: L’imperatrice perfume
The tickly feathers made a few children giggle, the buttons made a pleasing rattling noise and the busy-ness of the board seemed to either distinctly appeal or repel different children. I think I would interpret this board as amazed sometimes and overwhelmed at other points, depending upon where my brain was when I received it!
Miserable
Smell: mustiness found on some wool stored in a damp corner! I stuck the wool underneath this board just before I left for the school.
This was a surprising hit with several children – mostly because of the ‘trapped’ marbles although a few children loved squashing the soggy ball repeatedly! One child asked me what the fly was doing which led to an amusing conversation about flies and what we think of them.
Scared
Smell: tea-tree oil
This elicited the most varied responses in terms of what it could represent. It was described as being excited, worried, as well as scary. Some loved the smell, others didn’t. I guess tea tree is a smell that divides the crowd! The shiny purple material made a rustling noise and the spikes were sharp, but only with glue gun glue!
Content
Smell: rose
The bell was a real hit here as well as the super-soft wool and its sweet smell. I did a bit of imagining: being a few centimetres tall and wandering in this landscape. Would that be surreal, uplifting, dream-like or downright scary?
Calm
Smell: oregano
This mostly seemed to appeal to the adults! I suspect it appealed to those with a love of orderliness! of course oregano usually reminds people of pizza too!
Angry
Smell: basil.
Children loved this one. I had to keep re-perking the pipe-cleaners! There was universal agreement that it portrayed anger. Some children liked the sensation of rubbing their fingertips over the solid sand.
Happy
Smell: moringa perfume
There were same children who struggled to let go of this one. Staff are well versed in replacing one object with another.
The ears are super-soft and of course it barked cutely when an adult was holding it!
Relaxed
Smell: lavender
The smell of lavender got mixed responses. Surprisingly, some children liked exploring this one by running their fingers repeatedly round the circle. It was almost like they welcomed the simplicity and calm after the overstimulation of the other ’emotionscapes’ – so it did sort of work as ‘relaxed’!
Happy
Smell: mint
Because these colourful tubes were so squidgy, this kept a number of children engaged for quite some time!
Excited
Smell: chocolate
The chocolate smell was popular although it filled up the room with its smell quite quickly. It was definitely the dominant smell in my bag! The silkiness of the purple tassel made a few children smile.
Sad
Smell: pathchouli
Most children went straight to the marble! It was described as calm, sad and happy!
Bored
Smell: no smell
Like ‘relaxed’, this appealed to some children – mostly for rubbing their fingers lengthways across the strips.
Here are a few photos of the day (permission granted).
I think creating 3D models to represent emotions is 1) fun and 2) and excellent way to introduce abstract art to children!