Big Emotions!

Dr Liz Stafford explores mindfulness & music with EYFS and the Big Emotions Wisdom Bundle

In the first half of the Summer Term 2021 I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to trial the Big Emotions Wisdom Bundle with my Reception Class. The Wisdom Bundle includes a storybook, songbook, activity ideas and resources, which are supported with online downloads and videos via the Wisdom Hub.

We began by watching the ‘audiobook’ version of the story - which was actually a video of the artwork from the book combined with narration, so the phrase ‘audiobook’ doesn’t quite do it full justice. In the story a little boy boy and his cat go on an epic adventure, both physically and emotionally, experiencing lots of different feelings along the way. The children loved the story, and the following week they could all still remember it - a sure sign that it had captured their attention.

For the next few weeks we used different parts of the story to explore the songs for each emotion, and the associated musical and other activities. At first I found the songbook layout quite difficult to navigate, but then got used to having to flick backwards and forwards through the relevant sections to find the activities I needed. In a way it was nice to have this flexibility of mixing and matching different elements, rather than just having to deliver a rigid lesson plan.

The songs are beautifully written and performed by Laura Loft, and the children really enjoyed joining in with all the actions (especially the ones to accompany the words ‘Crash, Bang, Crashety Bang!’) The one thing I did notice about the songs was that they sit very low in the voice, and my children struggled to sing along at pitch. This wasn’t necessarily a problem this time round as I was technically not meant to be encouraging them to sing anyway (thank you Covid-19!), but I could see this being a problem in the future if we did decide to incorporate full singing into the sessions.

The musical activities within the Wisdom Bundle had some nice ideas for exploring the different dimensions of music, and the different emotions from the story. In our most recent lesson, we learnt the song ‘I am calm’ and then did some breathing work while listening to the backing track, as well as blowing a feather in the air, and using our instruments to make ‘calm’ music, noting that we needed to pay quietly and slowly.

The accompanying craft activities were also great to dip in and out of, and the children absolutely loved the colouring sheets! We didn’t use the assembly resources but it is useful to know that they’re there for future reference. I would definitely recommend this bundle to any EYFS or KS1 settings looking to provide something a bit different for music or PSHE!