The School of Play Curriculum
Kindergarten
Week Thirteen invites students into a gentle and imaginative journey where they learn to understand, express, and celebrate their emotions with courage. Through playful activities like the Feelings Puppet Show and My Feelings Face, students explore what it means to share their feelings openly and creatively. These experiences help them build emotional awareness, confidence, and the vocabulary needed to express what’s happening inside in a safe and supportive way.
This week also encourages calm reflection and connection, with activities such as Soft Stretch Circle and Thank You Cards for Helpers guiding students to practise self-kindness, mindfulness, and gratitude. Just like the Playful Astronaut’s discoveries on Venus, students learn that vulnerability is not a weakness, but a powerful bridge to understanding and caring for one another. Week Thirteen strengthens emotional resilience while nurturing a warm classroom community built on empathy, honesty, and trust.
Weekly Lessons
Feelings Puppet Show
Feelings Puppet Show is a gentle and imaginative activity that helps students explore, express, and understand emotions through the safe distance of puppet play. By acting out feelings with puppets, happy, sad, nervous, excited, proud, or worried, students learn that all emotions are normal and that sharing them is an act of bravery. This mirrors the lesson from Venus in The Playful Astronauts, where showing your feelings can feel scary, but vulnerability is what brings people closer together.
As students bring their puppets to life, they practise naming emotions, explaining why the puppet feels that way, and offering kind words or strategies that might help. Performing simple scenes and watching others builds empathy, confidence, and emotional awareness. The activity also encourages students to listen, support their peers, and recognise that we all experience similar feelings. Feelings Puppet Show creates a warm, safe space where emotional expression is celebrated, and students learn that being open makes friendships and classroom connections stronger.
My Feelings Face
My Feelings Face is a gentle, expressive activity that encourages students to look inward and represent how they feel through drawing. By creating a large face with features and colours that match their emotions, students develop deeper self-awareness and emotional literacy. Whether their feelings are calm, excited, worried, joyful, or tired, the drawing becomes a safe space where they can express what’s happening inside. This creative process reinforces the Venus lesson that being open, especially about our feelings, helps us understand ourselves better and builds emotional confidence.
After drawing, students are invited to share their artwork with a partner or the group, strengthening communication skills and vulnerability in a supported environment. Listening to one another’s emotions builds empathy and connection within the class, helping everyone feel seen and valued. My Feelings Face provides a nurturing way for students to practise emotional expression and recognise that feelings change, grow, and are meant to be shared, just like the warmth and openness celebrated on planet Venus.
Soft Stretch Circle
Soft Stretch Circle is a peaceful, movement-based activity that helps students connect with their bodies and emotions in a gentle, nurturing way. Through simple stretches, slow breathing, and calming affirmations, students learn that vulnerability can feel soft, quiet, and safe. The activity encourages them to tune into how they feel, move slowly with intention, and use kind self-talk to build confidence. Just like Venus in The Playful Astronauts, this experience teaches students that expressing emotions, whether big or small, is easier when we feel grounded and supported.
As students stretch together in a circle, they practise calmness, self-awareness, and positivity. Listening to or repeating affirmations such as “I am safe” or “It’s okay to feel” encourages emotional openness and helps each child feel valued. Sharing this gentle moment as a group strengthens connection and trust, reminding students that softness is a powerful form of strength. Soft Stretch Circle creates a warm, safe space where movement, mindfulness, and vulnerability come together to help students feel steady, seen, and supported.
Thank You Cards for Helpers
Thank You Cards for Helpers is a gentle, heartfelt activity that encourages students to reflect on moments when they felt shy, sad, nervous, or unsure, and someone stepped in to support them. By thinking about these vulnerable moments, students build emotional awareness and begin to recognise how meaningful it is when others offer kindness. Connected to Venus’ message in The Playful Astronauts, this activity helps children see that remembering and appreciating these caring moments strengthens their sense of safety, trust, and connection.
Students create their own thank you cards using drawings, colours, and simple messages to express their gratitude. Whether they choose to give their card to a classmate, sibling, teacher, or family member, the act of giving becomes a powerful expression of warmth and appreciation. Sharing these cards builds confidence, nurtures relationships, and celebrates the people who bring comfort during hard moments. Thank You Cards for Helpers reminds students that expressing gratitude is not only kind, it’s a beautiful, brave way to honour the support we receive when we need it most.
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