Duration: 15 minutes
SPIRIT Skills:
- Emotional awareness and communication
- Empathy
- Creativity
Brief Description:
Each group begins designing their “Emotion Tower.” They reflect on how to visually represent the assigned emotion using shapes, colours, height, and balance. This stage supports the transition from abstract feeling to concrete form.
Groups sit together with paper and markers to:
- Brainstorm how their tower will visually represent their emotion
- ketch their design ideas
- Discuss features like height (tall/low), shape (sharp/round), balance (stable/unstable), colour (bright/dark)
- Make simple choices about materials and structure.
How does this develop particular SPIRIT skills
- Enhances emotional awareness by thinking deeply about how feelings can be represented physically
- Builds communication and decision-making skills through group planning
- Encourages creative thinking and symbolic reasoning.
What do we want to achieve regarding SPIRIT skill development (student understanding and/or behaviour)?
- Students understand that emotions can be expressed in non-verbal, creative ways
- They explore how shapes, balance, and colours reflect inner states
- They learn to work as a team to plan and agree on a shared goal.
Academic/Curriculum Objective connection
- Visual arts: Exploring elements of design (line, shape, colour, texture)
- Language: Describing intentions and choices.
Materials and tools needed for implementation
- Large paper for sketching
- Coloured pencils or markers
- Emotion cards as visual reference.
Preparation notes
- Encourage all group members to contribute ideas
- Offer visual prompts (e.g., sample towers, colour/emotion charts)
- Support students who may struggle with visual imagination through discussion or gesture.
Guided Questions
- What shape best fits this emotion?
- Would this emotion be a tall or short structure?
- What colours match how it feels?
- How can you show balance or imbalance?
Stage Debriefing Questions (Optional)
- Was it easy to agree on a design?
- Did anyone in the group have a different idea of what the emotion should look like?
Tips and Tricks for dealing with stage challenges
- Remind students that there are no “wrong” designs – all ideas are valid
- Step in to help groups that are stuck by prompting with “What if…” ideas
- Use emojis or emotion posters to support fewer verbal students