Learn about emotions through different colours

Planning this activity

• Put the paints into pots. Each group will need one colour. It’s best if everyone has their own paintbrush.

  

Offering support for this activity

• You could look out for key dates in the calendar that you could plan your talk around, such as World Mental Health Day or Children's Mental Health Week.
• This might be the first time that a young person has explored the issue of emotions, feelings, mental health or thought about speaking with someone about this. If a young person shares their own mental health problems, let them know they can talk to you afterwards and that they can get support from Childline (call 0800 1111 or go to childline.org.uk).
• Remember to follow the ‘Young People First’ code of practice (the Yellow Card) in any conversations, and read our guidance on supporting mental health in Scouts.

Make a mood mural

1. Gather everyone together. Explain that you’re going to learn about different feelings using colours.
2. Ask everyone to get into four groups.
3. Give each group a colour, either red, blue, green, or yellow.
4. Each group needs one colour of paint, some brushes, and some paper. They should find a space to sit together with their equipment.
5. Explain that in this activity, each colour represents an emotion or a feeling. Red is angry, blue is sad, green is calm, and yellow is happy. You might want to use other words people are familiar with too, such as mad, cross, or upset.
6. Each group should think about the feeling that matches their colour. They should paint things that make them feel that emotion. For example, the red group should use their red paint to paint things that make them feel angry. You should encourage the groups to think of different things that might make them feel that way. People can paint as many or as few things as they like.
7. Place each group’s paintings in a space. You’ll want four clear areas, so each colour is in a defined area. People will be running or moving between the paintings, so you may want to put a stop line around them to avoid them being trampled on.

Pick your picture

1. Everyone should spread out around the space.
2. Call out different events or situations that might cause different emotions. For example, getting a present, losing a game, singing songs, or exploring outdoors.
3. When each event or situation has been called out, everyone should run to the emotion that the event or situation would make them feel. For example, if it would make them feel happy, they should run to the yellow paintings. You might need to remind people that there isn’t one right answer here. It’s OK if people disagree about how they’d feel.
4. You could ask a few people why they chose the colour they did and why that scenario made them feel that way.
5. Keep calling out situations and events, until everyone has been to each emotion a few times.

We all make a rainbow

1. Explain to everyone that it’s normal to feel different feelings at different times – there are no bad feelings. Mind has some great information on different feelings and mental health problems.
2. Remind everyone that lots of people were playing the game – and they sometimes had different feelings in response to the same event - and that’s OK.
3. Explain that it’s important to look out for other people and help them when they might feel sad or angry.
4. Ask people about things they could do to help people when they’re feeling angry or sad.
5. Create a colour wall in your meeting space with the different colours from the activity. You could use this to help people let you know how they’re feeling on different days.