Starting points To work with expressions and feelings using dolls and music. Continuing from an earlier session by using four dolls with four different facial expressions and hair colour.
Step 2
The children led the session. They named the dolls by their expressions: Crying/sad doll, Shouty doll, Happy doll and Giggly doll. The names they gave to the dolls were different to what we expected.
Two children claimed and adopted the two ‘positive emotion’ (Happy and Giggly) dolls and played with them for an hour and half and said they were ‘theirs’.
The ‘negative emotion’ (Crying/ sad and Shouty) dolls got emotional reactions from the children:
‘It’s crying because it’s hungry and I’m going to get it to sleep by rocking it’ and they took a role in looking after them.
One boy who only communicates using single words expressed that Crying doll ‘has tummy ache’ He went off and came back with stethoscope and started examining the doll. Tummy aches make you cry.
It was a very quiet and caring session.
Step 3
We took the dolls into the gym and used music, with a contrast between each track. The children could do what they liked to each track.
The boys were really physical to the music and with the dolls.
One girl was ‘not sure’ if she would join in, but after watching for a while, she really got into it and was very engaged with the dolls.
Many of the children showed the same reaction to Shouty doll, telling him off and what to do as if copying an adults voice perhaps using words they hear told to them.
It was good to use the gym space that was free from other distractions so the children could really concentrate on the dolls and the music.
Resources:
• emotion dolls / persona dolls • variety of music to explore different emotions