What is SEL?

Social Emotional Learning is as important as any subject that we learn in school because if we can understand, and talk about, how we feel then we’ll be better at understanding others. This will help us to be better friends, brothers and sisters and later on bosses and leaders!

At Minster-in-Sheppey Primary School, we use ‘The Colour Monster’ book by Anna Llenas, to help our pupils to recognise and understand their emotions.

Plot Summary

The story follows a Lovable character know as, the Colour Monster, who wakes up feeling confused and mixed up, with his emotions all tangled together. A little girl helps him sort through his feelings by assigning a specific colour to each emotion.

Yellow for happiness

Blue for sadness

Red for anger

Black for fear

Pink for love

Green for calm

As they explore these emotions together, the Colour Monster learns to identify and voice his feelings, ultimately gaining self-awareness and peace.

This book is introduced in our EYFS setting in the first term and helps our pupils to be able to name and discuss their emotions, encouraging our pupils to understand the importance of expressing feelings in a healthy way. The Colour Monster’s experience also helps our pupils understand that emotions can be complicated and often overlap. It also shows that experiencing a range of emotions is perfectly normal.

If you haven’t read the story take a moment to listen to the story by using the link below.

What is an Emotional Barometer?

Recognising the importance of SEL, we used the Colour Monster to developed a tiered approach to developing vocabulary linked to emotions and feelings and created our Emotional Barometer. There is a different Barometer for each Key stage.

Each classroom displays an Emotional Barometer and they are used daily with pupils to enable them to share how they are feeling on any particular day. This enables the class adults to put in specific support if required.

The Emotional Barometers are also a visual model to help pupils develop their vocabulary and share their feelings with increasing accuracy as they journey through the school.