Kristi Harnishfeger, an elementary school teacher in Michigan, devised a different way to think about monsters. A multi-day lesson with her third grade students incorporated the use of adjectives, emotions, and Zones of Regulation. You could accommodate for any age.

1) Students pick an emotion, title the top of their papers with that emotion and the word Monster.  Ex: Happy Monster.

2) They draw that monster and label body parts using different adjectives to describe it.

3)  Read the book Anh’s Anger to the students, and discuss how all emotions come and go, as previously read about in Visiting Feelings.

4)  If you use Zones of Regulation, discuss which colored zones they think their monsters are in. The children color their picture backgrounds with that color zone.

Kristi found this project a good reference point for her students when talking about their emotions and understanding the different Zones of Regulation.  She said it was “super fun” for her to teach this too!