Students from the “Bait leBanim” boarding school for boys of the Dnipro Jewish Community, who are participating in the “Successful Me” project at the “Or Shalom Dnipro” Psychological Support Center (operating within the “Solomonika” ECC with the support of the Joint), took part in a session dedicated to creating an “emotional palette.”
The session for the children was led by Elina Khatuieva, a psychologist at the “Or Shalom Dnipro” Center. She proposed correlating six emotions – joy, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust – with six colors. The children then explored how, just as paints mix to create new colors, new feelings are born from the combination of the core emotions we are born with.
The children experimented with paints, mixed shades, found images representing emotions, and assigned names to them. Each child created their own unique emotional palette – a unique combination of colors reflecting their inner world: which color sounds like joy, which shade represents fear, and which paint manifests anger or excitement.
“To conclude, we translated the created emotional colors into movement: we painted using straws, combining breathing exercises, art therapy, and expressive art. As a result, the drawings turned out vibrant, dynamic, and very sincere – just like our emotions,” said Natalia Medvedeva, Director of “Or Shalom Dnipro.” “Such sessions help children become aware of their feelings, express them in a safe, eco-friendly, and creative way, and, most importantly, understand themselves better.”
