everything curriculum | July 2022


Here are some activities that you might like to do with the children in your class, to help build on emotional understanding and vocabulary around jealousy.


#1 Create a word wall


With the children, make a list of some of the words you might use when you are feeling jealous. For example:


• “That’s not fair” • “I want…” • “Why can’t I?” • “They’ve got…”


And a list of words that describe what you feel inside? For example:


• Knotted up • Wound up • Tight • Hungry inside


#2 Draw how you feel


Talk with the children about how their bodies feel when they’re jealous. What happens to their tummy, heart, breathing, hands, legs or face? Draw around one of the children to create an outline of a person, then write or draw the feelings on the body. For example, knots inside the tummy.


#3 When have you been jealous?


Ask the children about a time when they experienced jealousy. What did they want? Maybe it was just to be treated the same, or maybe they wanted to play with a friend’s toy. What did they do in the situation to express their jealousy and how did others respond to them?


Let’s talk about anger, fear and sadness…


These three emotions are also a big part of conflict and war. Each needs time and space to be recognised, accepted and talked about. Emotions tell us about ourselves and others.


Some of the activities and suggestions in this article are from the Little Book of Big Emotions series, which is available on the YPO website.


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We feel angry when we experience or witness injustice, are frustrated with our needs or desires or when someone crosses our boundaries. We feel this emotion when we believe we’ve been treated unfairly, or when we are physically/emotionally in pain.


We feel sad if we lose someone or something we love or experience another kind of loss.


And fear alerts us to danger.


You can repeat the three activities above for anger, fear and sadness.


Spreading hope during war Luckily, there is another side of war, a side that gives us hope.


In each photograph you see or news flash that shows the horrors of war, there is always someone helping. It could be a person holding a stranger’s hand to comfort them, doctors and nurses tending wounds or neighbours sharing what they have with each other. If we look for the kindness and love, the bravery and the loyalty, we will always find them. In the very worst of times, there is always hope. And, as Brene Brown said, “we need hope like we need air.”


Encourage children to look for the people who are helping, sharing, being kind and showing love. Create a ‘wall of wonder’ by shining a light on the goodness, the kindness, the love and the humanity. You could write poems, collect words, draw pictures, or find newspaper articles all about the good things that people are doing. Or even decide to do something positive together, like raising money for one of the charities working so hard to help those in need. This will help them to find hope; hope that one day the guns will cease firing and the war will stop.


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