everything curriculum | July 2021
Picture cards demonstrating different emotions could be used to help here. After the children have suggested how the puppet might be feeling, the next step could be to ask the children what the puppet should do next to help when feeling the emotion.
Story books Any story book could be used for this activity. Simply ask children to identify how the characters are feeling. Most children’s books offer plenty of opportunities to talk about emotions!
Another way of approaching this would be to ask children to raise their hands when they can tell how the characters are feeling. You could then ask them to act out those feelings or make faces that match the feelings as they listen to the story.
Calling in the Care Bears
Thanks to their core values and iconic status, the Care Bears characters make for brilliant teaching buddies and they can easily be used to help children learn about emotions. Wondering how you could use the Care Bears to assist with social–emotional learning in your classroom? Here are a few creative ideas:
An introduction to feelings The different facial expressions and belly badges that Care Bears wear can make for a fantastic general introduction to feelings. This could be particularly helpful for younger children, but also for children with
additional learning requirements, such as autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), as children with ASD often struggle to recognise emotions and facial expressions.
“Show” don’t “Say” Aside from being great to cuddle, the Care Bears Plush collection offers children an accessible and unintimidating way to share their concerns and talk about how they might be feeling. This is because they can provide children with a useful means of expressing their emotions when they can’t find the right words to express their emotions, with a “show” rather than “say” method of expression. This initial articulation of how a child might be feeling could then be further expanded upon to generate a wider discussion.
Care Bears social–emotional teaching templates The Care Bears educational worksheets, which were developed in partnership with Canva, offer teachers a fun and engaging way to kick off a meaningful conversation with students. They can help to break the ice and can be used again and again to check in with them and gain a better understanding of their current state of mind. These templates include classroom kits, creative and interactive activities and SEL (social and emotional learning) worksheets.
About the Care Bears Medium Plush Bear range
At 35.5cm in size, this beautiful soft toy collection is perfect for unlimited bear hugs! Their adorable, modern styling retains the charm of the classic 80s collection, whilst being instantly recognisable for children who love the latest Care Bears TV show – Care Bears: Unlock the Magic. What’s more, as one would expect from this iconic brand, each character is a different colour, and each bear features a special belly badge that represents its personality.
Available to buy from YPO, there is Cheer Bear, Share Bear, Funshine Bear and Grumpy Bear. Cheer Bear is the pink bear with a rainbow belly badge; she is known for spreading cheer! Share Bear is the purple bear with a belly badge that displays two heart–filled lollipops to illustrate how the root of sharing is caring. There’s also yellow Funshine Bear, who has a sunshine belly badge; he is known for being happy and always tries to look on the sunny side of life. Then there is Grumpy Bear; this blue bear has a raincloud on his belly badge, and he wears a cute but grouchy expression.
View the range at:
ypo.co.uk/carebears 21
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