Interact is a game about communication. It is aimed at non-verbal communication skills. The game will teach children about gestures (some by touch), expressions, eye contact and voice (expressions, pitch and volume). It does not cover space and personal space although that could be addressed by the person leading the game. The game could be played on a one to one basis or a group basis. My suggestion is no more than four children. The game consists of: Say it cards Expressions cards Eye contact cards Gesture cards A game board Bingo type boards You will also need counters and a die to play. How to play Choose the person to go first by each throwing the die and the highest number thrown goes first. Go clockwise from that person. The first person throws the die and moves their counter that number of spaces. They will land on either ‘say it’ ‘gestures’ ‘eye contact’ or ‘expressions’. They must pick that card and do what is on the card. They may need help with the gestures as you may need to model to them what it means but they will soon begin to learn them. When they have done this they get a counter to put on their bingo board. The first person to fill their bingo board is the winner. If someone has reached the finish star but still hasn’t filled in their bingo board then they must start again.

The feel good game – is a game about self-esteem. The game will promote discussion on positive aspects of the child’s life and will use affirmations and character traits to reinforce self-esteem. The game could be played on a one to one basis or a group basis. My suggestion is no more than four children. To make the game Photocopy or print the game board onto A3 paper then laminate Print all the cards, laminate and cut into separate cards Print the ‘I am board’ and laminate, print 4 of each so that you have enough for girls or boys. The game consists of: Affirmation cards Character trait cards ‘I am’ boards A game board You will also need counters, dry wipe pens and a die to play. How to play Choose the person to go first by each throwing the die and the highest number thrown goes first. Go clockwise from that person. The first person throws the die and moves their counter that number of spaces. They must answer the question they land on, however, if they land on affirmation then they must read this out to the rest of the group. Ask the child if they agree with the statement. They may or may not. If they land on a ‘character trait’ they must read it out and explain what it means. If they cannot explain it then ask if anyone else can help? If they think they have this character trait they can write it on their ‘I am board’. The aim is for each child to have 5 character traits on their board at the end of the game. Continue going round the board until each child has their five character traits. There isn’t a winner as such with this game as the aim is for the children to learn about their positive traits When they have all filled their ‘I am’ board then they are all winners! You can photocopy each ‘I am board’ before erasing the writing for the next game.

This is a booklet which could be used with a child who has lost a pet. It is the one thing that I have dealt with many times in my role as ELSA. It is probably the first time the child has dealt with death and they are understandably very upset. It is really important that you get permission from their family before working on bereavement with a child. Most parents are very happy for you to help their child come to terms with their loss. I have included ‘The Rainbow Bridge’ poem which is a lovely poem to discuss with the child. I know it gives me comfort with the loss of my pet cat.

Name – child writes their name in a colourful way – they could write in bubble writing or decorate it anyway they wish. Why do they like their name? How did they get their name? Do they know of anyone they admire with the same name? Do they have a nickname? Picture– either take a photo of the child to stick here or ask them to draw themselves. What do they like about their body? Is there anything they don’t like? What amazing things can they do with their bodies? How do they take care of their bodies? Talk about exercise, eating, drinking, washing, going to doctors if ill etc. What about their minds? How do they keep themselves happy? Content? Relaxed etc.? Front cover title – What is self esteem? Do they know? Have a discussion about what having a healthy self esteem is. Make sure they are aware that the things you are going to be working on will help their self esteem. Family pocket and hearts – think about their family members and write one on each heart shape. Reinforce that sense of belonging to the child. They belong to their family. They are part of a family. That family maybe an adopted family but they still BELONG. Keep all the family members safe in the little pocket. ‘I can’ can – think about all the things the child ‘CAN’ do. Focus on the positive with this activity. What can they do? Think about their school work, their homes, their friends, and anything at all that they can do. It could be the tiniest thing but if they can do it then it is written on the little cards and put into the ‘I can’ can. This can be added to over the time you are working with the child. Tell the teacher to help the child realise what they ‘CAN’ do. Reinforce this at all times. Thank you for – Being grateful and thankful can really boost happiness and self esteem so this activity is about thinking of all the things the child is thankful for. Each day there will be something, no matter how small, Are they thankful for family? friends? that they are a fast runner? that they have a lovely home? that they get food everyday? that they are in good health? Focus on being thankful at all times. Write all these things on the little strips and pop into the pocket. Keep adding to this over your sessions. Treasure chest – This has several sheets which fold up like a little booklet. The child can decorate their face at the top and you can choose which one to do – there is ‘Things I am proud of’, ‘Things I have achieved’, ‘Things I like about me’, ‘Things I tried hard to do’. You could put anything in the treasure chest that is special and is something to keep safe. Wheel – you could use this with strength cards Look through the strength cards together and ask the child to pick 8 things they are good at. 8 strengths. Obviously they may come up with ones that are not in the pack and that is fine. Write one strength on each section of the wheel. Glue the bottom section to the top of the lapbook and

Snakes is a game where children must make as many snakes as they can. The aim of the game is to read a card and if correct keep it. Make as many snakes as you can. The person who has the most full snakes at the end of the session is the winner.

Spaceships is a game where children must make as many spaceships as they can. The aim of the game is to read a card and if correct keep it. Make as many spaceships as you can. The person who has the most full spaceships at the end of the session is the winner.

Make a signpost for your reading area or for your library. Print out the post and make it as big as you like by either printing A3 or A4 and piecing the bits together. Print out as many signs as you like. There are 21 different ones to choose from.

222 Emotion word cards and 4 banners make up this resource. Fantastic for display or for working with children with social and emotional problems. Use the cards: Find an emotion word you don’t know the meaning of and find out! Pick a positive emotion and use it in a sentence. Pick a negative emotion and use it in a sentence. Think about your day and pick out all the emotions you have felt in that day. Make a collage of angry words. Make a collage of happy words. Make a collage of scared words. Start a feelings diary and pick out your main feeling for that day. Write it down and explain why you felt that way. Pick a card and draw the facial expression. Pick a card and draw a picture of a time when you felt like that. Pick a card and find all the synonyms of that word. Pick a card and draw a comic strip of what happened when you felt like that, use speech bubbles and thinking bubbles to show what you were thinking or saying. There are so many things you can do with these cards

My Worries and Fears Lapbook can be built with a child, combining lessons and creativity and craft. Each component can be a lesson or part of a lesson. It is something for the child to take away at the end of your sessions. You could easily fill 4 to 6 lessons with what is in this lapbook. There are two versions, one in black and white so the child can colour the lettering etc and one in colour where they can just cut and stick. By creating this you are helping the child have some tools for coping. All you need is an A3 piece of card, card and paper for printing, a glue stick, laminating pouches and a drywipe pen. My Worries and Fears Lapbook is for the everyday worries that children have. If a children is very anxious then this needs a referral to a professional. My Worries and Fears Lapbook consists of: Front cover title in black and white and in colour Front cover name and drawing of themselves labels Tell your worry to a worry doll pocket and small printable worry dolls (black and white and colour). A worry doll is a Guatemalan tradition where children tell their worries to their doll and put their dolls under their pillow at night. The dolls take away their worries. My Worries (bag) pocket in colour and black and white. My Worries cards to slot on the pocket. Cards consist of different sized monsters (metaphor for worries) so that the child can scale their worry. They can write on the back of the worry card. There is also a drawing prompt for the child to draw their own worry monster (or anything else that they could use as a metaphor for a worry). Let’s talk about coping strategies – There are 24 prompt cards for discussing worries and coping strategies. Let’s look inside your head – This is a little booklet with a happy face and a happy brain, a worried face and a worried brain. Children fill in things that make them happy in their happy brain and things that make them worry in their worry brain. Remind children often of the things in their happy brain. My thoughts and how can I change them pocket and cards- children write down their thoughts when they feel worried. How can that thought be changed. Prompts discussion on thinking more positive thoughts. My body sheet – where does the child feel their worries and fears? eg. tummy ache, fast heartbeat, hot and bothered, fast breathing etc. Back cover based on the Worry Tree by Butler and Hope 2007. Laminate this sheet so the child can reuse to work through their worries.

Print on A4 or A3 . This is a brilliant resource for children with SEN or younger children who just need a bit more help to understand number.

This resource is helpful for building a sense of identity and self esteem. Instructions for making up the resource are included in the downloadable pack.

Activities consist of: Creating a superpower to help people Creating a superhero name Designing your superhero How it makes you feel to use your superpowers to help someone Comparing your favourite superhero to yourself – same and different The Superhero emotion characters have all been drawn by myself.

The crafts are very simple. It is the process that is important. Children relax when they are working on a craft and to be honest I do not know of a child who does not enjoy crafts especially when it is with someone who is interested in them and interested in what they say. They will open up to you and talk freely whilst enjoying themselves. These activities are also perfect for an ELSA or Teaching assistant who has to do a one off session with a child or who has to work reactively to a situation. Also can be used for whole class activities at Christmas time. When children succeed in an activity then their self efficacy increases. They begin to believe in themselves. Along with your encouragement and praise they will begin to have a ‘can do’ attitude. It takes time but if anyone ever says to you that what you are doing is just ‘crafting and having fun’ WHAT are they learning? You can tell them. The resource includes: Card crafts (20 activities) Templates (17 templates or resources) Front cover, contents sheet

Teach children about the six basic emotions with these booklets and games. Angry, sad, happy, scared, disgust and surprise. Can be used on a one to one basis, with a group or even a whole class. Use the sheets as worksheets or lessons for every child. Great for ELSA intervention or for Learning mentors or Teaching assistants. Also a set of superhero fans thrown in to help with emotional regulation.

This is a game aimed at fussy eaters. It encourages them in small steps to eat something new.

Here are some emotion faces based on Christmas characters. This resource can be used in many different ways. Laminate the ‘face sheet’ and then laminate all the expression and vocabulary cards. Cut out the expression and vocabulary cards. Use a blob of bluetac to stick items onto the face. Add a whiteboard pen, a mirror and some playdough to extend the use of this resource. All images have been drawn by myself.

6 Monster Character posters There are six monsters in the pack with key vocabulary. There is a monster for each basic emotion- happy, sad, angry, scared, surprised and disgusted. Each monster is a character. We have: Angry Adam Disgusted Doug Happy Hannah Sad Simon Scared Sophie Surprised Sam Each character is displayed on one page which can then be printed as A3 or A4 to create your display. The character is asking ���How do you feel today?’ Alongside the monster is some key vocabulary. It is so important for children to learn other emotion words too so they can express their feelings. 6 Monster character cards There are also some smaller cards (2 per page) which you can print as A4 or A3 depending on how big you want your cards to be. Each monster is holding a card for the child to write or draw on. The idea is that the child can choose which monster they feel like. They can then write or draw why they feel like that. 7 Banners There are also 7 banners to choose from. Each one having a different colour so you can choose the colour you would like to use. These are in PDF format so to print as a banner you will need to change the settings. Everyone’s printer is different so it is difficult to give instructions but on my computer I choose poster print, and reduce the percentage to 75%. This prints over 3 pages which you can then stick together to form your banner. Obviously you could print it bigger or smaller by changing your settings. 6 emotion cards Each character on a separate card. (4 per page). Writing paper for each character (write your own title/question) Drawing paper for each character (write your own title/question) Speech bubble, thinking bubble and comic strip This is a display and resource pack but it doesn’t stop just at displays. These cards could be used as a teaching tool too: You could do a circle time each week concentrating on one character. All emotions work could be on that one character for the week. Children could have a go at creating their own characters for each emotion. Use the drawing paper included in the pack. Write your own scenarios on the monster cards to help children relate to the emotion. Make up stories of why ‘Doug is disgusted’ or ‘Adam is angry’. Use the writing paper included in the pack. Draw comic strips showing why ‘Sophie is scared’. (A comic strip is included in the pack). Use to model emotional regulation. Tell the children ‘I feel like Angry Adam today because…’ What should I do about that? How can I calm down? There are lots of activities you can do with this pack. Perfect for early years or SEN.

The Mind Monsters Fan Pack is a perfect resource for especially young children to identify their feelings. It is based on the 6 basic emotions of happy, sad, angry, scared, disgusted and surprised. It is also suitable for children with SEN and even older children will love the characters. There are 3 levels of fans. The first one just shows the monster on its own for children to relate to the face and facial expression. The second one shows the name of the Monster – Angry Adam, Sad Simon, Surprised Sam, Happy Hannah, Scared Sophie and Disgusted Doug. This will help children to label the emotion by the name and the expression. The third level has a scale of 1-5 for children to begin to scale their emotions. How sad are they? Are they a tiny bit sad or very very sad? There are more Mind Monster resources, please check my store.

A powerpoint show, PDF and activities around teaching children the difference between true and false to give them an understanding on telling lies.

This is a Christmas wishes stocking booklet. Pupils can either choose a mindful colouring version or they can choose a coloured version. The aim of the activity is mindfulness and thinking about Christmas wishes. Once the stocking is coloured, cut out and folded, pupils can write or draw their wishes inside the stocking. This would make a fab display,