The Hopla Box

 A colourful box of activities and games for children aged 2 to 4 Hopla Feels ... … is designed to help very young children get in touch with what is going on inside them, and to make sense of their experiences and perceptions. Young children are not sufficiently mature to grasp the entire range of feelings, so Hopla introduces four basic feelings: • happy • afraid • angry • sad. The Hopla Box contains pictures and stories about four delightful animal characters who will appeal to young children – Hopla the rabbit, Lola the cat, Onki the pig and Nina the bear – as well as games of dominoes and bingo, play masks and a 'wheel of emotions', all of which help children to explore the four emotions. Comprehensive guidance is supplied for the 27 group activities – what they are intended to achieve, the materials needed, group organisation, tips for alternatives and follow-up. If young children learn to recognise, name and distinguish feelings within themselves and others, they become better at empathising with other people and recognising emotions from body language. They also learn to acknowledge their own feelings, to 'allow' them to exist rather than trying to hide or suppress them. This also means allowing others to be angry with them, for example, without running away or getting upset. Working with feelings helps young children to gradually establish a healthy emotional foundation, enabling them to open up to others and develop true social competence. Hopla Feels ... is the result of collaboration between the Centre for Experiential Education (Leuven University, Belgium) and Bert Smets Productions.

• 16 Situational pictures (15 x 15cm), for each basic feeling of happy, sad, angry and afraid
• 12 Hardback 4pp storybooks (15 x 15cm) – three for each feeling
• 4 small boxes (16 x 16 x 8cm) for each Hopla character/feeling
• 4 pictures of the Hopla characters (Hopla is 19 x 39cm, Nina, Onki and Lola are 19 x 30cm)
• 16 double-sided cardboard characters (4 x 10cm) with plastic feet for standing upright
• 4 masks showing happy, sad, angry and frightened faces that can be worn by the children
• A wheel of feelings (20 x 20cm)
• 40 dominoes
• Bingo game
• Instruction manual with photocopiable activity pages
• Sturdy storage box with carry handle.