Craft Lesson 4 - Emotions have Color

Discussion:

This craft lesson attempts to teach young children how to associate colors to human emotions. Dr. Seuss has a good book for conveying this concept to children. His picture book, “My Many Colored Days” shows many colorful photos portraying different human emotions: fear, disappointment, sadness, happiness, anger, etc. This book, with its simple text and graphics is a good tool for opening a discussion on moods.

How To Teach It:

The teacher explains to her young pupils that everyone has instinctive emotions. Different situations create different feelings. This book simply tries to explain these various moods with color. The instructor then begins to read. After each page, the teacher asks the children what feelings are being expressed by the picture graphics and color. The teacher can perhaps get more interaction by asking the students if they have any personal examples to share with the class. The teacher could also offer a personal account to get the ball rolling. This open forum is a good way for children to hear their peers speak about personal experiences that involved happiness, sadness, or anger. Children need to understand that everyone has feelings, good and bad. It is good for children to hear both sides of the spectrum.

If there is enough interest, upon completion of the book, the teacher can have the children finger paint or color picture/pictures of different emotions that they have experienced. This would be a great opportunity to see if the children somewhat grasp the concept of capturing emotions with color.

Resource Material:
“My Many Colored Days" by Dr. Seuss