Stress This resource is about stress and coping strategies. Some stress can be good because it can actually encourage and motivate you to work harder. When you get too much stress it can make you feel overwhelmed. Finding a balance is key to managing stress. Stress bucket The bucket is a metaphor for the body and the water is a metaphor for stress and coping strategies. This resource will lead the child through making a stress bucket and learning how to use it. Levels of stress Depending on the person, the level of water in the bucket may already be high due to past experiences. Stress entering the body isn’t necessarily filling up an empty bucket. It is adding to what is already there. Every day stressors can soon overflow the bucket. There are always people and children who blow up over the slightest thing and this is probably because their stress is quite high all of the time. Turning on the tap Turning the tap on is a metaphor for letting out the stress and the best way to do this is through coping strategies. Coping strategies can be anything that the calms the person down from ‘calming breathing’ to ‘having a run’. It might also be things they enjoy doing, something that makes them feel happy. It can be individual to the person on what works for them. What relieves their stress? Included in the pack Stress scales. These could be used as bookmarks and taken away. A4 poster that could be stuck to the wall as a reminder 24 additional supporting worksheets An A4 bucket and pocket – pupils can put their stress INTO the bucket by using the pocket Cloud and water for the craft Different sizes of water droplets Information sheets including examples of stressors, de-stressing ideas, physical body signs, and how it affects emotions and behaviour

This resource will help children understand the basics of CBT. Our thoughts affect our feelings, our feelings affect our behaviour or actions and those behaviours or actions reinforce our thoughts. Included in the pack: A poster to display as a reminder A 24 page workbook Flash cards of thoughts. feelings and actions Credit card sized cards to take way from sessions as a reminder

These are our unwind the mind activity mats. These mats are a combination of working on the particular topic – e.g. be brave and mighty and relaxation activities through refocusing attention. There are puzzles, mindful colouring, drawing, creating patterns and a little writing. You can print them A4 but also if you want them bigger, use your printer settings and print them on A3 paper. These are suitable for KS2 and most of them for secondary too. These unwind the mind activity mats are perfect for Before or after SATs or tests Ending your session Beginning your session Morning routine whole class activity When things are winding down at the end of term Calming corners Homework Transition times Any stressful situations We have the following 10 mats along with answer sheets where needed Be joyful Be mindful Be calm Be positive Be brave and mighty Be kind Be caring to yourself Be determined Be friendly Be proud Benefits of unwind the mind mats Both puzzles and mindful colouring are calming activities that can help children relax and unwind after a busy day or during stressful times. Engaging in these activities encourages deep breathing and fosters a sense of peace and tranquillity. Solving puzzles and colouring mindfully can act as effective stress-relief techniques for children. By focusing their attention on the task at hand, children can temporarily shift their focus away from worries and anxieties, promoting a sense of calmness and emotional well-being. Puzzles and mindful colouring require children to concentrate and pay attention to details, which can help improve their concentration and focus over time. These activities encourage children to stay engaged in the present moment, enhancing their ability to sustain attention and ignore distractions. Puzzles can provide children with opportunities to exercise their problem-solving skills and critical thinking abilities. By deciphering clues, finding patterns, and making logical deductions, children can develop important cognitive skills that are essential for academic success. Mindful colouring allows children to express themselves creatively and explore their imagination through colours and designs. It provides a non-verbal outlet for self-expression, allowing children to convey their emotions and feelings in a safe and therapeutic manner. Successfully completing puzzles and creating beautiful artwork through mindful colouring can boost children’s self-esteem and confidence. Accomplishing challenging tasks and seeing tangible results can instil a sense of pride and accomplishment in children, reinforcing their belief in their abilities. There are lots more benefits to these activity mats.

Brain Break cards and fans. Great for children who need a break. 8 cards and 4 fans included

This journal will address many areas of a pupils’ well-being. It is suitable for KS2 upwards and even useful for adults! The journal is a way for pupils to find the positives in their life and to discover mindfulness and relaxation. Here are some of the areas addressed: Positivity Emotions Self-esteem Focus Target setting Mindfulness Relaxation Thinking skills Affirmations Scaling emotions Worries Thoughts and feelings Emotion tracking Gratitude/thankfulness Kindness Creativity Reflecting Planning Included in the pack: One weeks worth of journal – each day has 2 pages of things to fill in Independent journal sheet should pupils want to continue Worry garage Positives Jar 2 emotion trackers – dream catcher and mosaic End of week assessment Bullet journal sheet for creating Weekly review 8 front covers to choose from Doodles, drawings and scribbles sheet How to use the journal with lots of ideas for using in ELSA Sessions with a pupil – would also be useful to teachers, teaching assistants, learning mentors and counsellors.

This EBSA workbook School difficulties has been created with valuable help from the members of the ELSA Support Facebook Group who provided some of the difficulties their pupils face. It relies on real life situations that pupils have found difficult about coming to school. ELSAs are often on the front line trying to help pupils back into school and to work on their difficulties. The booklet is aimed from Year 3 to Year 6 but could also be used with Year 2 with support. We also have EBSA workbook school thoughts and feelings and EBSA Workbook Coping with school worries on the website. EBSA is Emotionally based school avoidance. Pupils who struggle to come to school or are non attenders. This might have an emotional cause or a mental health cause. The activity consists of a sorting board, cards with suggestions, cards for pupils to write their own, an exploration board, a feelings board with scales and changes and what they want to happen to make things feel ok. This activity will help pupils to identify what is bothering them at school and how to reduce that feeling by changing the situation. Start by printing out the base board and cutting up the cards. Print out a blank sheet so the pupil can add their own if they want to. Help the pupil sort the cards between things that are ok, things they are unsure of and things that are not ok. Once you have done that choose one of the things that are not ok and look at it further. Help the pupil break it down to see if you can find out what the actual issue is. Example might be ‘seating plan’ that is not ok. What is it about the seating plan that is not ok? Is it that they are sitting next to someone they don’t like? Perhaps they can’t hear the teacher? Perhaps they are uncomfortable and there might be a draft or a bright light bothering them. They might prefer to be sitting with a friend. Perhaps someone copies off them or talks to them and they don’t like that. Try and help the pupil to break down the difficulty. Once they have the root cause of their difficulty, help them to identify how it makes them feel. Can they put a name to that feeling? How big is that feeling? There is a sheet for pupil voice to say what changes need to happen for them to be ok. They can write it or you can write it for them and they can tell you what needs to change. There is also a daily sheet for pupils to write down anything that they think of or that crops up for them. There are also some additional supporting resources included in the pack This is the first workbook in the EBSA Workbook Range.

The ‘Feel the Feels’ range of resources are aimed at older pupils and therefore are suitable for secondary children. They use a range of clipart of teens/preteens. This is a bingo set which can be used for emotions work. This set contains the following emotions/feelings/conditions – annoyed, furious, hyper, proud, depressed, stressed, shocked, excited, silly,

This intervention is written for a group of four pupils and is led by an ELSA or teaching assistant. It covers emotions, relaxation and lessons around worries. It runs for approximately 40 minutes. This intervention is aimed at 5 to 7 year olds. This intervention follows this structure Welcome and emotional register– welcome the pupils to the group, go over the circle time rules and talk about how they feel today. Activity – this is where the pupils work on the learning objective. Relaxation/Mindfulness – pupils are more ready to go back to class if they are relaxed and calm. This also teaches them valuable coping/relaxation skills. Review of the session – pupils talk about their learning experience. There are lots of resources in this pack and LOTS of visuals to help children to understand. Lesson objectives Lesson 1 – I can tell you what a worried face looks like Lesson 2 – I can understand how worries can make my body feel uncomfortable Lesson 3 – I can tell you if my worry is a BIG or a SMALL worry Lesson 4 – I can understand how my thoughts can make me feel uncomfortable Lesson 5 – I know some ways to calm myself down Lesson 6 – I can park my worries and make a plan

There are 40 brightly coloured cards showing ways to be a good friend. Perfect for KS1 and Lower KS2. Use these as discussion or teaching points on how to be a good friend.

This wellbeing craft group can be used as a whole intervention at lunchtime clubs, after school clubs or as part of your ELSA work. The sessions are all stand alone so could be dipped into as part of your sessions. You could use them for the first session with a child to help them feel calm and relaxed with you. Making crafts is very satisfying and can help with mindfulness, low mood and self esteem. There are lots of opportunities for discussion and children will often open up when crafting. There are 6 sessions in the pack with planning, templates, emotion wheel and mindful colouring for early finishers. 67 Sheets in total. Sessions are for approximately 30 minutes and include an emotion check in, planning for six sessions which includes a mindfulness/calming activity, mandalas for mindful colouring – useful for early finishers and a huge template pack which includes several variations of each craft, black and white versions, information, and instructions. Wellbeing craft group activities: Sleepy stars which is about getting a good night’s sleep Kandinsky tree which is about colour and emotions Relaxing jellyfish which addresses relaxation and contains affirmations for the word relax. Worry Monsters which looks at worries Friendship wreath which looks at qualities of friendship Happy sunshine which is all about things that make them feel happy

This self-care potion activity is a fun and engaging for pupils to look at all the things that help with their self-care. There are two potion bottles to choose from. Print out a bottle and print out the pocket. Cut them out carefully and stick the pocket to the bottle. Print out and cut out some of the droplets of potion. Firstly go through the list with the pupil and get them to write their ideas on one of the sheets. They can add any others not on the list here too. When they have a decent amount they can then fill in their droplets and add them to the pocket of the potion bottle. If they aren’t too keen on all the writing they can go straight to filling in the droplets with prompting from you, using the self-care list. You know your pupils so do what you think is best. Suitable for practically all age groups. Included in the pack: 2 different potion bottles Pocket label for the bottles List of self-care ideas 3 different sheets for pupils to record ideas first 8 coloured potion droplets All available in black and white too This is their recipe for self-care.

This is a ‘Falling out with friends pupil leaflet’ (conflict) which was an ELSA request. It is written in a child friendly way so pupils will understand. Included in the ‘falling out with friends pupil leaflet’: Understanding Conflict – Explanation of what conflict means and the emotions around conflict. Causes of conflict – examples of situations that lead to conflict. Win win – What is a win win situation? Compromise – What it means to compromise along with traffic light reminder. Test yourself – Questions to check understanding. There is an editable part for you to put your contact details or just your name. Simply type in the blue box. Don’t worry the blue box doesn’t show when you print. You can of course just print it and handwrite your details. There is also a BLACK AND WHITE version included in the pack. Important information This leaflet is meant to be used as part of ELSA Sessions or some other therapeutic session and shouldn’t just be given out to children without some input. Please DO NOT just give these out without that important input. They are purely reminders for the pupil to take away and for parents to get involved. It is your responsibility to decide whether the information in this leaflet will be helpful to your pupils. Under our terms and conditions these leaflets must not be put onto school websites. They are for printing and giving to pupils at the end of a session or you could use them as a basis for your session. Work through each part with the pupil.

This is a shyness resource pack requested by one of you lovely ELSAs. It is aimed at KS2 upwards. This resource pack is to help children who want to be more confident and brave. They want to overcome their shyness because they are perhaps missing out on things in life. Being braver and less socially awkward may help them have more friends, face their fears and open up new opportunities. There are a whole range of emotions that can come from being shy such as nervousness, anxiety, fear, panic, and embarrassment. Children need to be able to deal with these emotions with coping strategies. Included in the pack: One of our TAB booklets in colour and black and white 3 worksheets in colour and black and white Learning objectives you could use for this pack: To understand what being shy means To identify body signs for feeling shy To understand that other emotions might be triggered by being shy To set a small achievable target for overcoming being shy To be able to scale a situation on the shyness scale To identify thoughts linked to shyness and reframe them To identify and use coping strategies for shyness To understand feelings after overcoming shyness

This gratitude jar will help children look for the positives in their lives. Gratitude according to Positive psychology is strongly linked to being happy. I have done lots of jar activities but think that gratitude is such an important one so deserves its own post. This resources has a jar with and without lines. It also has a long list of suggestions/prompts to encourage children to reflect on things they are grateful or thankful for. The jar without lines can be decorated with pictures, photographs and words. Make it colourful. It could also be used each day and the child adds just one thing for that day they are grateful or thankful for. Of course you could make an actual jar with a lovely label and ask the child to fill it each day with things they are grateful for.

This is a 5 day challenge on being kind to yourself. This is suitable for anyone to do whether you are 5 years old or 15 years old.

This is our Transition Mixed Feelings pack. Transitioning to a new school, class, or group brings a mix of excitement, anxiety, and sadness. Excitement stems from the prospect of new beginnings, learning opportunities, and potential friendships. The idea of a fresh start can be exhilarating. Anxiety, however, often accompanies this excitement. The fear of the unknown, concerns about fitting in, and pressures to perform academically and socially can be daunting. Sadness is another common feeling, arising from leaving behind familiar faces, routines, and environments. The sense of loss and nostalgia for past experiences can be emotionally challenging. Missing old friends and known comforts adds to the difficulty of the transition. To manage these mixed feelings, it’s good to recognise them. This resource will help your pupils do just that. It’s important to acknowledge and validate all emotions. The transition mixed feelings pack has a visual ‘face’ version and a ‘word’ version so you can adapt to the capabilities of the pupil. Despite the challenges, with time and support, pupils can navigate these emotions and successfully adapt to their new environments. This activity is fun and engaging. Pupils will enjoy cutting out and sticking their emotions onto the jar.

Express yourself Art Doodling is a series of prompts for drawing. Children get so much from drawing. It is a way of self expression and self exploration. Children relax when drawing and are much more open to talking about their feelings. This booklet can be printed as A4 and stapled together or as A3 to give children more room for drawing. You could also just dip into the sheets and print the one you want to use. You could use the same sheet for the whole group or whole class of children. The booklet has purposely been created in black and white so as not to distract from the child’s drawings and of course to save printing costs. There are 40 activities in the booklet covering so many aspects of emotional literacy. I am sure children will get a lot out of the booklet and it will give you valuable information about their thoughts and feelings. It can also be used as a ready made lesson plan for one to one work or group work. Please ensure you use ADOBE to open PDFs because this will give you great options for printing.

This resource will help to develop children's growth mindset as well as help them risk assess a situation. Children need to look at their mistakes, find out what they learnt by that mistake, understand the consequences and have another go or don't have another go depending on what has been learnt. Equally children do need to assess the risks of an activity they are doing to make sure they do not hurt themselves and to give a bit more thought into what they are doing. They need to understand the consequences of their mistake. Included in the resource: A game board 18 mistake scenario cards 10 ideas for using the mistake cards worksheets to go with those ideas

The resource consists of: a game board 42 scenario cards 8 worksheets Explanation cards on being ‘RUDE’, ‘MEAN’ and ‘BULLYING’. So many children and parents use the term ‘bullying’ incorrectly. This resource aims to teach the difference between being rude, mean or actual bullying. Being rude is doing something unintentionally and doing it once. Being mean is doing something intentionally and doing it once or twice. Being a bully is doing something intentionally and doing it over and over again even when told to stop. The scenario cards are a mixture of rude, mean and bullying situations. The cards can be used with the game board or with the worksheets. They will prompt lots of discussion on what bullying really means. Children will explore intentional or unintentional behaviour, controlling behaviour, the victims feelings, and remorse or sorrow for the behaviour. There is also a poster added as a free extra.

This story is suitable for working with children who steal. It includes: A story to read to the child and discuss. Repeat the story several times to ensure the key points are being understood. Prompt cards to print, laminate and put on a keyring for taking away with them. They could have a copy for the classroom and one for home. A target sheet so that the child can colour a star if they manage to stop themselves from stealing A certificate for when they have reached their target. 12 Question cards on the story to ensure the child understands what is being asked of them. Worksheets on the key points of the story to ensure understanding. Assess understanding. See if the child really understands stealing with these simple scenarios