Story from Children's Ground, Aus.

The children at Burt Creek have been practising using the emotion rocks to identify different feelings and choose a rock that reflects how they may be feeling. This experience is a strong example of learning through play, where children explore emotions, language, and relationships in a hands-on, meaningful way. By engaging with the emotion rocks, the children are not only playing, but actively constructing understanding through imitation, choice-making, and shared interaction with carers.

Some of the children have been having fun making different faces on the rocks and learning to copy these expressions from their carers. Through this, they are developing social-emotional literacy skills—learning to recognise, label, and express emotions in a safe and supported environment. This also supports their growing ability to understand others’ feelings, build empathy, and develop positive ways to communicate.

Some of the rocks include different weather patterns, and the children have been enjoying selecting these to represent the weather, using language such as uterne (sunny), angkulye (cloudy), and anheme (rain). This connects their learning to meaningful experiences around them, linking emotions and language to the natural environment and their understanding of Country.

This calm and quiet activity provides a meaningful way for children to connect with their emotions, their environment, and their caregivers. It supports language development, strengthens relationships, and reflects how children learn best through play that is engaging, relevant, and grounded in their everyday experiences.