Emotional responses to nature

1. Make sure there are a range of the face print outs available for learners to choose from – they should be printed double-sided so that the word of each emotion is printed on the back (or this can be written).  
2. Children can help to make the different emotion faces by cutting out the faces, remembering to cut out the eyes too. Then, the faces can be fixed to a stick or lolly stick with tape, to be held up as masks.  
3. Facilitate a discussion based on each emotion – what do you look like when you feel this way? What sorts of things make you feel this way? What sorts of things can we do to change the way we are feeling? You could explore learners’ feelings about nature and their environment further with more prompts: How does being outdoors make you feel?  
4. Taking the masks with you, go outside and explore your site. Learners can choose a mask and find things that make them feel this emotion. Example: a piece of litter might make them feel sad, whilst a flower might make them feel relaxed, or a tunnel in a play area might make them feel excited.  
5. Allow time for learners to explore with different emotion masks, and prompt discussion from their findings. If you are near the beginning of your Nature Park journey, you may want to focus on the spaces or sights that make learners feel sad or worried, and ask why that is or what could be done to change this.  
6. Once learners have explored their outdoor space, come together to collect the data. Using the Feelings Grid resource, draw or write the names of five spaces that the children reflected on. These should include any improvements for nature you have made (if you have made any), and a mixture of natural and human-made features. For example: pond, tree, concrete corner, flower patch.  
7. Ask learners to share how each feature or space made them feel, first through discussion, and then by adding a tick in the relevant box on the grid. Collect all responses on one grid so that you can observe the trends together. What do learners notice? What spaces had the most responses of each emotion?   

Reflection

If you have already made changes to your space, you could compare how the old and new spaces make learners feel – if learners feel happier, or more relaxed, ask them why that is.