Core Skills Analysis
Art and Design
Emily explored how visual design can communicate emotion and identity when she painted a blank mask using her favourite colours. She learned that colours, shapes, and facial features on a mask could create different expressions and help an object look happy, calm, playful, or mysterious. By choosing her own colours, Emily made creative decisions and practised turning an idea into a finished artwork. This activity helped her understand that art can be used to show feelings without using words.
English / Speaking, Listening and Emotional Literacy
Emily watched a programme and understood that masks could keep identity secret, showing that she could follow what characters were doing and think about their reasons. She also connected the idea of a mask with different expressions, which helped her notice how people and characters can show feelings in indirect ways. When she decided to paint a mask to show feeling, she practised linking an idea from a story or programme to her own response. This showed developing emotional awareness because she used the mask as a way to express a feeling through her artwork.
Tips
Emily could next look at different pictures of masks from stories, festivals, or theatre and talk about how each one changes the mood it gives. She could try painting or drawing another mask that shows a different feeling, such as excitement, sadness, or surprise, and compare how colour choices changed the effect. A simple mirror activity could help her notice how her own face changes with expressions before she designs new masks. She could also describe her mask in a short sentence or story, which would strengthen the link between art, feelings, and language.
Book Recommendations
- The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt: A fun picture book about colours and creative expression.
- My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss: A simple story that connects colours with emotions.
- The Mask Book by Penny Smith: An engaging introduction to masks and their creative uses.
Learning Standards
- Art and Design: Emily used colour, shape, and design to create an artwork that expressed an idea and feeling, matching the National Curriculum expectation to use art to develop and share ideas.
- English: She listened to and understood information from a programme, then responded by creating her own meaning, supporting language comprehension and discussion of characters and feelings.
- PSHE / Emotional Literacy: Emily recognised that expressions can show feelings and used art to communicate an emotion, supporting awareness of emotions and self-expression.
- UK National Curriculum code links: Art and Design KS1: pupils should use a range of materials creatively to design and make products; explore and evaluate ideas; develop a wide range of art and design techniques. English KS1: listen and respond appropriately to adults and peers; build vocabulary related to feelings and description.
Try This Next
- Draw and label a new mask showing one feeling, then explain which colours and shapes you used.
- Make a quick matching game: emotion words on one side and mask expressions on the other.
- Write one sentence about how Emily’s mask would look if it showed happiness, surprise, or calm.