Meet the stars! There is Happy Star, Sad Star, Silly Star, Cross Star, Surprised Star, Sleepy Star, Shy Star and Scared Star. 'My Mood Stars' are eight adorable, soft stars which help children identify and acknowledge emotions. The 'little-hand-sized' stars pop on and off their own 'My Mood Stars' board creating games to play and stories to make.
I took 'My Mood Stars' in to a local Primary School to see how they worked and what impact they might have. I am a stranger to this Reception class so went in with fingers crossed that I would not be met with silence from any little group who I was going to work with! I was given a random bunch of six youngsters who did, at first, make me feel that I was up for twenty minutes of encouraging any conversation.
First of all we identified the stars. We played a few games to ensure that we all knew who was who. Of course, the names of stars can be changed to suit the group; whether at home or at school; and age and ability of children. It was obvious that the pupils enjoyed picking the stars off the board and holding them, and this encouraged pupils to get the name right.
I then made up some little stories and pupils picked a star off the board to reflect how I felt. This did create some discussion (Wow, I thought, and I was worried that they wouldn't speak to me!) as pupils came up with different adjectives with similar meanings (eg sad, unhappy and even miserable, would you believe?!) and also how some emotions overlap (eg Molly thought I would be scared and shy in my new school).
Finally, we went around the group and each picked a star and told me how they were feeling and why. This went far better than I could have imagined. For a lot of young children, articulating their emotions can be a challenge but this was so easily achieved with 'My Mood Stars'.
I could also see how 'My Mood Stars' would be particularly helpful to those children on the autism spectrum as a visual and tactile toy that can be carried around and cuddled.
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