The School of Play Curriculum
Primary School Grade 3 & 4
Week Twenty Three centres on helping students recognise, express, and understand their emotions with confidence, creativity, and compassion. Through playful activities inspired by Venus's lessons, students learn that sharing feelings is an act of courage that builds stronger connections with others. Imaginative experiences like the Feelings Puppet Show give students a safe, supportive space to express emotions through characters and storytelling. At the same time, My Feelings Face provides a visual and reflective way for children to identify how they truly feel inside. These experiences strengthen emotional literacy, helping students understand that all emotions, big or small, are valid and worth expressing.
The week also emphasises calmness, gratitude, and the nurturing of emotional resilience. Soft Stretch Circle introduces mindfulness and gentle affirmations that allow students to reconnect with their bodies and speak kindly to themselves, building quiet confidence and inner balance. Meanwhile, Thank You Cards for Helpers invites students to reflect on times when they felt supported and to express heartfelt appreciation, strengthening trust and social bonds. Together, these activities foster vulnerability, empathy, and gratitude, helping students cultivate emotional courage and connection as they continue their Playful Astronaut journey.
Weekly Lessons
Feelings Puppet Show
Feelings Puppet Show gives students a gentle and playful way to explore emotions by letting their puppets do the talking. Using characters they create or choose, students act out scenes that show how their puppet feels, whether it’s happy, worried, excited, or sad. This imaginative layer provides a safe distance, helping children express emotions that might feel too big or too scary to share as themselves. As they bring their puppets to life with voices, actions, and simple stories, students begin to understand their own feelings more clearly while building confidence in naming and expressing them.
Watching each other’s mini-performances becomes a powerful moment of empathy and support. Students learn to listen without judgment, respond kindly, and celebrate the courage it takes to share feelings, even through a puppet. The classroom starts to feel like a community where vulnerability is welcomed and emotions are understood rather than hidden. This activity links beautifully to the Playful Astronauts’ visit to Venus, where students learn that opening up helps people grow closer. Feelings Puppet Show leaves the group feeling connected, understood, and proud of the bravery they showed through their tiny storytellers.
Respectful Relationships
Communication and Empathy
Feelings Puppet Show supports students to:
- Express emotions safely by speaking through a puppet, helping them practise naming feelings and sharing experiences.
- Listen with empathy as classmates’ puppets share different emotions and reasons behind them.
- Understand that everyone experiences a range of feelings, recognising similarities and showing compassion toward others.
Cooperation and Social Skills
Feelings Puppet Show helps students to:
- Work together respectfully during puppet scenes, taking turns and allowing each person’s puppet to share and be heard.
- Encourage classmates by responding kindly to each performance, building a supportive classroom culture.
- Share strategies and ideas (through their puppets) for helping someone feel better, strengthening collaborative problem-solving and emotional support.
Safety and Acceptance
Feelings Puppet Show encourages students to:
- Feel emotionally safe by expressing feelings indirectly through puppets, reducing pressure and increasing confidence.
- Accept that all emotions, even difficult ones like sadness or worry, are normal and okay to talk about.
- Celebrate one another’s vulnerability by showing appreciation, gentle applause, and supportive comments, creating a classroom where everyone feels valued.
My Feelings Face
My Feelings Face gives students a calm, creative space to tune into how they’re feeling on the inside and express it through art. By drawing a large face with features that match their emotions, students learn to recognise and represent their internal world in a visual way. Choosing colours, shapes, and expressions helps them understand that feelings come in many shades, bright, soft, heavy, or vibrant, and that all of them are valid. This simple drawing activity builds emotional awareness while encouraging students to notice and name their feelings with honesty and confidence.
When students share their drawings, the classroom becomes a space of openness and connection. Hearing peers describe their colours and expressions helps normalise a wide range of emotions and shows students that others feel the same way sometimes too. These moments of gentle sharing deepen empathy and support the idea that being open, just like the lessons from Venus, helps people feel closer and more understood. My Feelings Face leaves students feeling seen, more in tune with themselves, and proud of the courage it takes to express what’s happening inside.
Respectful Relationships
Communication and Empathy
My Feelings Face supports students to:
- Express how they feel using drawings, colours, and facial expressions, building confidence in sharing their emotions with others.
- Understand that classmates experience a range of feelings by viewing and listening to others’ “feelings faces.”
- Develop empathy by responding kindly when peers share how they feel, learning to recognise and respect different emotions.
Cooperation and Social Skills
My Feelings Face helps students to:
- Participate in group or partner sharing, practising taking turns and listening respectfully as others describe their drawings.
- Build stronger connections by learning about their peers’ emotions in a safe and supportive environment.
- Use art as a bridge for communication, encouraging gentle discussion and positive interactions within the group.
Safety and Acceptance
My Feelings Face encourages students to:
- Feel safe expressing their inner emotions through creative art rather than direct verbal disclosure.
- Recognise that all feelings, happy, sad, tired, excited, worried, are normal and accepted in the classroom.
- Celebrate emotional diversity by understanding that everyone’s drawings, colours, and feelings are unique and valued.
Soft Stretch Circle
Soft Stretch Circle invites students into a calm, gentle space where movement and mindfulness work together to build confidence from the inside out. As the class follows simple stretches, reaching tall, hugging their knees, wrapping their arms into a soft self-hug, they learn to tune into their bodies and move with care. These moments of slow movement are paired with soothing affirmations like “I am safe” or “It’s okay to feel,” helping students understand that emotions of all kinds are welcome. With each stretch and breath, they practise showing kindness to themselves and recognising that looking inward can feel brave, quiet, and strong.
As the circle moves in harmony, students begin to experience what it means to feel safe being soft and open around others. The shared calmness helps the group form a gentle connection, reminding them that vulnerability isn’t something to hide, it’s something that helps us grow closer. This experience links beautifully with the Playful Astronauts’ lessons on Venus, where warmth and self-acceptance help build meaningful relationships. Soft Stretch Circle leaves students feeling grounded, supported, and proud of the courage it takes to speak kindly to themselves.
Respectful Relationships
Communication and Empathy
Soft Stretch Circle supports students to:
- Listen to calming words and affirmations, helping them understand and communicate emotions in gentle, supportive ways.
- Recognise how movement and breath can express feelings, building empathy for how others experience calm or stress.
- Respond kindly to themselves and their peers by using soft voice tones, slow movements, and affirming language.
Cooperation and Social Skills
Soft Stretch Circle helps students to:
- Participate in a shared movement routine, practising turn-taking, following instructions, and moving safely with others.
- Strengthen group connection through synchronised breathing and simple stretches done together in a circle.
- Show respectful awareness of personal space while moving, helping everyone feel comfortable and supported.
Safety and Acceptance
Soft Stretch Circle encourages students to:
- Feel emotionally safe by choosing whether to repeat affirmations aloud or quietly in their mind.
- Accept their feelings, shy, excited, calm, unsure, as normal and welcome during the activity.
- Build confidence by practising gentle self-talk such as “I am brave” or “It’s okay to feel,” reinforcing a culture where vulnerability is understood and supported.
Thank You Cards for Helpers
Thank You Cards for Helpers invites students to pause and reflect on moments when someone supported them during a time of need, when they felt shy, unsure, sad, or nervous, and a caring person helped them feel safe again. Through drawing, colouring, and simple messages, each student creates a heartfelt card for someone who made a difference in their day. This creative process helps children recognise the kindness they’ve received and understand that expressing gratitude is a powerful way to strengthen relationships. As they choose colours, shapes, and words that show appreciation, students practise vulnerability by acknowledging their feelings and the people who helped them through them.
Sharing the cards, whether quietly slipping them into a bag, handing them directly to a friend, or taking them home for a family member, becomes a meaningful act of connection. Students learn that saying thank you is more than good manners; it’s a way of honouring the warmth and care others have shown them. When the group reflects on why they chose their helpers, the classroom fills with stories of kindness and courage. Linked to the lessons from Venus, this activity reminds students that gratitude blossoms when we let others know how much their support matters. Thank You Cards for Helpers leaves the class feeling appreciative, connected, and proud of their ability to give kindness back.
Respectful Relationships
Communication and Empathy
Thank You Cards for Helpers supports students to:
- Reflect on moments when they felt shy, sad, scared, or unsure, helping them build awareness of their own emotions and needs.
- Express gratitude through words or drawings, acknowledging how others supported them during moments of vulnerability.
- Understand the feelings of those who help them, building empathy by recognising how kindness creates emotional safety.
Cooperation and Social Skills
Thank You Cards for Helpers helps students to:
- Strengthen positive relationships by giving a thoughtful card to someone who cared for them.
- Share appreciation in a respectful and heartfelt way, contributing to a supportive classroom culture.
- Practise speaking or sharing in a group, listening to peers’ stories of kindness and learning from one another’s experiences.
Safety and Acceptance
Thank You Cards for Helpers encourages students to:
- Acknowledge times when they needed help, promoting emotional safety and normalising vulnerability.
- Celebrate supportive people in their lives, reinforcing that seeking help and showing appreciation are valued and accepted.
- Feel confident offering thanks in their own way, through writing, drawing, colouring, or quiet giving, supporting diverse forms of expression.
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