The Shades of Monster Emotions

THE SHADES OF MONSTER EMOTIONS

THE SHADES OF MONSTER EMOTIONS

Learning Description

Using the book The Color Monster: A Story About Emotions, by Anna Llenas, students will investigate story elements and dive into the world of emotions and colors. They will actively explore emotions using their faces, bodies, and voices.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: 2
CONTENT FOCUS: THEATRE & ELA
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

Download PDF of this Lesson

"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can make connections between emotions and colors.
  • I can use my body, face, and voice to convey emotions and colors.

Essential Questions

  • How are emotions like colors, and how can colors represent emotions?
  • How does talking about and exploring our emotions help us?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 2:

ELAGSE2RL1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text. 

ELAGSE2RL7 Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.

Arts Standards

Grade 2:

TA2.PR.1 Act by communicating and sustaining roles in formal and informal environments. 

  1. Use imagination and vocal elements (e.g. inflection, pitch, volume, articulation) to communicate a character’s thoughts, emotions, and actions. 
  2. Use imagination and physical choices to communicate a character’s thoughts and emotions. 
  3. Collaborate and perform with an ensemble to share theatre with an audience. 
  4. Explore character choices and relationships in a variety of dramatic forms (e.g. narrated story, pantomime, puppetry, dramatic play).

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 2:

2.RL.MC.5.1 Ask and answer literal and inferential questions to demonstrate understanding of a text; use specific details to make inferences and draw conclusions in texts heard or read. 

2.RL.MC.5.2 Make predictions before and during reading; confirm or modify thinking.

Arts Standards

THEATRE

Anchor Standard 3: I can act in improvised scenes and written scripts.

VISUAL ARTS

Anchor Standard 5: I can interpret and evaluate the meaning of an artwork.

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

Emotion – A state of feeling such as: angry; sad; excited; nervous; happy. 

Theme – the lesson of the story

Arts Vocabulary

Color - a component of light which is separated when it is reflected off of an object.

Actor – This is a person who performs a role in a play, work of theatre, or movie. 

Facial Expression – how an actor uses his or her face (eyes, cheeks, mouth, chin, nose) to convey meaning. 

Gestures –any movement of the actor’s head, shoulder, arm, hand, leg, or foot to convey meaning.

 

Materials

  • The Color Monster. A Story About Emotions, by Anna Llenas. 
  • Color list (below, or comparable by teacher choice)
  • Emotion list (below, or comparable by teacher choice)

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

Colors

  • Lead a discussion about colors.  What are colors?  Discuss how light reflects off of things in different ways, and that’s how our eyes see colors.  How do colors make you feel? What do they make you think of?  What is your favorite color, and why?  Option: show the list of colors attached below, discuss any that are unfamiliar, and compare different colors that are similar, e.g., silver and gray.  Ask what other colors they can think of that are not on the list.

Emotions

  • Lead a discussion about emotions.  “What are emotions?  How do different experiences make us feel different emotions?  How do our emotions change?  How do we express emotions?” Show the list of emotions attached below, discuss any that are unfamiliar, and compare different emotions that are similar, e.g., sad and lonely.  Ask what other emotions they can think of that are not on the list.

Connecting Colors and Emotions

  • Lead a discussion about the connection between colors and emotions.  “Can you think of any phrases that connect colors with emotions?(e.g., ‘green with envy,’ ‘seeing red,’ or ‘feeling blue,’ or ‘rose-colored glasses.’)”  Do certain emotions make you think of certain colors?  Or do you associate different colors with different emotions?  If so, why?”  Honor whatever connections the students might make, even if they seem unconventional.

 

Work Session

The Color Monster

Explain that the class will read a book that connects colors with emotions.  Discuss this connection as the theme of the book – it is the main idea or concept.  Show The Color Monster.  Explain that the author, Anna Llenas, has thought a lot about this question, and she connects certain colors with certain emotions.

  • Read the book aloud.  During the read aloud, have students add sound and body to express the characters and repeat key lines or phrases after you read them. Encourage them to become the characters with their face, body and voice.
  • After reading aloud, review the colors and emotions in the book (yellow = happy; blue = sad; red = anger; black = fear; green= calm; pink=love).  Discuss if those connections make sense to students.  Ask, “What other colors and emotions would you connect?”
  • Discuss the concept expressed in the book about feeling mixed emotions, and putting emotions into separate containers.  Ask, “What does this mean in real life?  How can we put emotions into different containers?”

Coloring Our Emotions

  • Tell the students that you will call out an emotion and they will use their bodies and faces to convey that emotion.  Start with a simple emotion like happy, sad, or scared.  Tell them they can use facial expression, body position, and gestures to convey the emotion.
  • Ask them to express what color they connect with that emotion.  (e.g., “I’m scared and it feels pink” or “I’m bored and it feels gray.”)
  • Ask them to add sound to their faces and bodies.  Ask, “Does this emotion make you use a loud or soft voice?  High or low?  How would you pronounce your words with this emotion?”  Allow different students to have different interpretations, and acknowledge that sometimes when someone is angry they could be loud or quiet, or that when someone is happy, their voice could get very high or very low.
  • Call out several more emotions from the list, and have the students repeat the process.
  • Give volunteers the opportunity, when conveying an emotion with body, face and voice, to articulate why someone might feel that emotion (e.g., “I’m angry that my sister won’t play with me, and it feels bright red,” or “I’m happy that we’re going to have ice cream, and it feels light green.”)

Finding Emotions from Our Colors (Optional)

  • Explain that now the process will be reversed.  A color will be called out, and students can respond with a connected emotion.  Tell students that they may connect the emotion directly with a color, or they may think of something the color reminds them of and find the emotional connection that way.  E.g., blue might make a student think of a swimming pool, invoking excitement; red may make a student think of a stop sign/caution; or orange may make them think of fire, invoking fear.
  • After calling out a color, allow students to use their bodies and faces to show the emotion; then ask volunteers to use their emotional voice to name the emotion they are thinking of and explain the connection, if any.

Extension

  • Have students draw a picture connecting a color with an emotion.  Have them start from either an emotion or a color.  If they start from an emotion, have them choose the color that they think goes with it.  If they choose a color, have them decide which emotion they connect with it.  Using a single color, have them write the emotion word (with guidance as needed) and draw images, lines, and shapes that convey the emotion (e.g., The drawing could include squiggles, zigzags, curves and solid shapes, as well as representational images such as a football player, two friends arguing, a piece of jewelry, or a butterfly).
  • Then have them write a paragraph describing the emotion in terms of the color and the elements they included in their illustration.  The paragraph can begin, “When I feel ______ (emotion), everything looks ________ (color) because . . .”

 

Closing Reflection

Ask, “What is the connection between emotions and colors?  How can colors help us think about emotions?  How do colors make us feel?  How did we express emotions using our bodies, facial expressions, and voices?“

 

Assessments

Formative

  • Students demonstrate understanding by using their bodies, faces, and voices. 
  • Students use emotion and color words to describe what they are enacting.
  • Students articulate situations or scenarios that make sense for the emotion they are conveying.

 

Summative

Students’ illustrations and paragraphs convey their understanding of the connection between emotions and color.

 

Differentiation

Acceleration: 

Explore the concept of mixed emotions implied in the book.  Have students choose two different, seemingly conflicting emotions connected with  two different colors, and have them enact them together.  Have them articulate a scenario that might lead to conflicting emotions (e.g., getting together with a close friend who is moving away).

Remediation: 

Work through the emotions according to how they are portrayed in the book, maintaining a one-to-one correspondence to avoid confusion.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Books with a similar theme:

     My Many-Colored Days, by Dr. Seuss

     What Color Is Your Day?, by Camryn Wells

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Ideas contributed by: Susie Purcell and Barry Stewart Mann

Revised and copyright:  June 2023 @ ArtsNOW

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Acting Out the Adverb, But What About the Adjective? 2

ACTING OUT ADVERBS . . . BUT WHAT ABOUT ADJECTIVES?

ACTING OUT ADVERBS . . . BUT WHAT ABOUT ADJECTIVES?

Learning Description

In this lesson, students will compare and contrast adjectives and adverbs. We will explore how acting out an adverb is easier than an adjective. While we can reach for the adjective, they are often difficult to physically demonstrate. As a trick for identifying the difference, we teach students to try to imagine acting them out.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: 2
CONTENT FOCUS: THEATRE & ELA
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

Download PDF of this Lesson

"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can differentiate between adjectives and adverbs by trying to act them out.

Essential Questions

  • How can the arts help to clarify language arts concepts?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 2:

ELACC2L1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

  1. Use adjectives and adverbs and choose between them depending on what is to be modified.

Arts Standards

Grade 2:

TA2.PR.1 Act by communicating and sustaining roles in formal and informal environments.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 2:

2WL.4:

Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing and speaking. 

     4.5 Use adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified.

Arts Standards

Anchor Standard 3: I can act in improvised scenes and written scripts.

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

Adjective - A word that modifies a noun.  Adjectives often describe color, shape, size, smell, feel, emotion, or other intrinsic or temporary quality.

Adverb - A word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. Adverbs often tell when, where, why, or under what conditions something happens or happened.

Arts Vocabulary

Pantomime - pretending to hold, touch or use something you are not really holding, touching or using; in the theatrical tradition, acting without words

 

Materials

Possibly, a whiteboard for brainstorming ideas

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

  • Explain that students will be acting out different things in today’s lesson.  Remind them that when acting things out, it is important to stay safe.  Have students each make a ‘space ball’ around themselves. Model and have students follow blowing up a bubble to become the space ball.  Spread it out to the sides, to the front and back, and up above.  Remind them to be careful – not to break or burst the space ball.  Explain that this is the student’s acting space, and that they must not crash their bubbles into one another. They have to keep safe in order to participate.
  • Give students a series of prompts alternating between nouns modified by adjectives and verbs modified by adverbs, such as:
    • become a tall pine tree
    • act out running fast
    • be a cold ice cream cone
    • toss a ball in the air wildly
    • be an interesting book
    • play an instrument gracefully
    • be a lonely dog
    • eat ice cream joyfully
    • be a dirty baseball
    • sway gently in the wind
    • be a loud tuba
    • read a book excitedly

Ask students to recall which prompts were easier to do and which were more challenging.  If necessary, review the list.  Ask them to explain what made the actions easier or harder to do.  Elicit, and/or guide them to the notion that words that told how to do something might have made it easier to act out the idea.

 

Work Session

  • Define or review adjectives and adverbs.  Review the list of prompts to identify adjectives and adverbs.  Use them as examples to reinforce the definitions of adjectives and adverbs.
  • Define or review pantomime – pretending to hold, touch or use something you are not really holding, touching or using; in the theatrical tradition, acting without words.
  • Lead students in simple pantomime activities, such as eating an apple or swinging a baseball bat.  Model for them and instruct them in using careful precise movements, slightly exaggerated, and including their faces and eye focus.
  • Then adapt those activities by adding adjectives and adverbs.  E.g., eat a red (soft, sour) apple and swing a wooden (long, heavy) baseball bat, and then eat an apple quickly (furiously, disgustedly) and swing a baseball bat powerfully (awkwardly, carelessly).  Reflect on the ease or difficulty of showing the adjectives and the adverbs.  Ask: why is it easier to act out actions that involve adverbs?  (Because adverbs often tell us how to do things, while adjectives often only tell us what a thing is like.)  Remind students that this reflects the difference between nouns and verbs – nouns are things, but verbs often imply action, and by definition action is easier to act out.
  • Have students pair up.  Have pairs decide on an action that can be pantomimed, involving an object of some sort.  (They can choose actions involving food, sports, school, music, art, the outdoors, chores, etc.).  Have them develop a pantomime for their activity.  Remind them that pantomime should involve precise and detailed movements, be slightly exaggerated, and engage the face and eyes as well as the body.
  • Have each pair show another pair what they developed.
  • Have them next add adjectives.  Remind them that adjectives modify nouns – describing the person, place or thing they are enacting.  If appropriate, brainstorm categories of adjectives (size, shape, color, taste, etc.) or even specific adjectives (gigantic, slow, loud, pink, striped, round, etc.).
  • Have them rework their pantomimes trying to reflect the added adjective.
  • Have each pair show another pair what their pantomime looks like, and discuss the changes they made.
  • Have them next add adverbs.  Remind them that adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.  Instruct them to use an adverb to modify the verb of their pantomime – describing the way the action is to be enacted.  Remind them that adverbs usually (but not always) end in ‘-ly.’  If appropriate, brainstorm categories of adverbs (speed, emotion, effort, etc.) or even specific adverbs (sadly, rapidly, angrily, recklessly, carefully, grumpily, etc.)
  • Have each pair show another pair what their pantomime looks like, and discuss the changes they made.
  • Possibly, have pairs volunteer to share their pantomimes with the class.

    Extension:  Have students fold a piece of paper in half, and on one side draw a picture of their phrase with an adjective, and on the other a picture of their pantomime phrase with an adverb.  Reflect on how, when drawing, the adjective is likelier easier to convey than the adverb.

    Classroom Tip:  This lesson will have to be carefully delivered so as not to further confuse students. Using adjectives and adverbs can help us to better act out a phrase.  But adverbs, because they focus on the action word. are easier to act out than the adjectives.  Therefore, ‘actability’ might be one test we use to determine if a word is an adjective or an adverb.

    Closing Reflection

    Ask students to restate the definitions of adjectives and adverbs.

    Ask students which were easier to act out – adjectives or adverbs – and why.

    Ask students to reflect on how they used their bodies (hands, arms, legs, full bodies, faces, eyes) through pantomime to act out their chosen phrases.

     

    Assessments

    Formative

    • Students should be able to correctly differentiate between adjectives and adverbs.
    • Students should be able to correctly provide examples of adjectives and adverbs.
    • Students should participate in the pantomime exercise while maintaining control of their bodies and personal space.

     

    Summative

    Assign various addition problems to the students at the level reflected in the lesson, and gauge their ability to visualize and complete the problems.

     

    DIFFERENTIATION

    Acceleration:

    • Have pairs develop pantomimes of several adjectives and several adverbs
    • Ask students to describe which types of adjectives and adverbs are easier or harder to convey through pantomime (e.g., color and texture might be hard; speed and emotion might be easy).

    Remediation: 

    • Model several sequences together
    • Do more brainstorming and record the brainstormed ideas on the whiteboard
    • Rather than having students work in pairs, take student ideas but have the class develop the pantomimes all together

     ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

    Hairy, Scary, Ordinary:  What is an Adjective?, by Brian P. Cleary

    Quirky, Jerky, Extra Perky:  More About Adjectives, by Brian P. Cleary

    Many Luscious Lollipops, A Book About Adjectives, by Ruth Heller

    If You Were an Adjective, by Michael Dahl

    Dearly, Nearly, Insincerely: What Is an Adverb?, by Brian P. Cleary

    Lazily, Crazily, Just a Bit Nasally:  A Book About Adverbs, by Brian P. Cleary

    Up, Up and Away:  A Book About Adverbs, by Ruth Heller

    Suddenly Alligator:  An Adverbial Tale, by Rick Walton

    *This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

    Ideas contributed by: Mary Gagliardi and updated by Barry Stewart Mann

    Revised and copyright:  August 2022 @ ArtsNOW

    Back to Modules