The preschool children have been thoroughly enjoying The Colour Monster by Anna Llenas**. After reading the story together, we spent time discussing how the Colour Monster felt when his emotions were all mixed up. The children were encouraged to talk about the different colours and what feelings they represented — red for anger, blue for sadness, yellow for happiness, green for calm, and black for fear.
To deepen our understanding, we created a sensory tuff tray experience linked to the story. The tray was filled with coloured spaghetti to represent each of the Colour Monster’s emotions. The children were provided with tweezers and clear jars labelled with the different colours.
Using the tweezers, the children carefully picked up strands of spaghetti and sorted them into the matching jars. They were then encouraged to choose a colour that represented how they were feeling that day and place that colour into their own jar. This opened up meaningful conversations about emotions. Some children confidently shared their feelings, while others explored the colours quietly before making their choice. It was lovely to see children recognising and naming their emotions, and supporting each other by saying things such as, “I feel yellow because I’m happy today,” or “I feel blue because I’m a little bit tired