This is an interactive ‘Would you rather’ PowerPoint game for teaching on a computer/IPAD, through zoom or google classroom. Pupils pick a card and the card will flip over to reveal a ‘Would you rather?’ Question.

This is a ‘Looking after my mental health’ tab booklet for world mental health day on the 10th October 2023 This resource is to help remove the stigma of mental health and help children to understand what they might need for good mental health. This booklet is here to show that it’s okay to talk about feelings and to help children  know what they can do to have happy and healthy minds. It is aimed at primary and lower secondary. This resource is to support World mental health day. Included in the pack How important are feelings? Who can I talk to? How can I relax? What makes me happy? How can I look after me?

This is a pupil anger trifold leaflet with information on the emotion of anger. An ELSA contacted me asking if I had any leaflets for pupils so I created this. If you like this and think it would be useful do let me know and I will look at creating leaflets for other emotions. The leaflet takes the pupil through what anger is, triggers, body feelings, labelling the feeling, scaling, and coping skills. I would suggest you give this leaflet out at the end of your sessions on anger or if you are just talking through anger with a pupil you go through the leaflet and explain everything in more detail with them. You will find instructions for printing and folding the pupil anger trifold leaflet within the download. You can add your contact details to the leaflet by typing in the BLUE box. The font is set to the same as the leaflet and the text auto adjusts so you can write a bit more than just your name. You might want to write where the pupil can find you. The blue box does not show when you print.

This leaflet gives a general idea of what an ELSA works on with children. It shows how a lesson may be run which includes and emotional check in, main activity, relaxation and a review. It looks at the aims of the ELSA programme such as building your child’s emotional development and to help them cope with life’s challenges. Also helping children to find solutions to any problems they may have. It covers the areas an ELSA may help with such as loss and bereavement, emotional literacy, self esteem, social skills, friendship issues, relationships, managing strong feelings, anxiety, bullying, conflict, emotional regulation, growth mindset and social stories. It is helpful to give one of these leaflets out to parents when you first start working with them.

This is a completely free resource that can be used to get to know children who will be starting school in September. Of course that all depends on the current situation. It is a booklet that was asked for from a Learning mentor who needed something to send home to parents to find out as much as possible about their child. With the current situation home visits won’t be possible. That may change in the next few months but at least you have something you can use. Obviously the parent and child would do this together. There are simple assessments such as colouring in, drawing themselves, drawing an emotion face, writing letters and numbers. Use as many or as few of the sheets as you want to. Parents if you are reading this then make sure there is no pressure on your child to write, draw etc but let them have a go or scribe what they say.

The four basic emotions are covered – happy, sad, angry and scared You will find that most other emotions have a base here. For example worried can come under scared, excited can come under happy, upset can come under sad and furious can come under angry. Learning these 4 first can help develop other emotions in time. Print out a copy for each day. Ask your child how they are feeling today? Ask them to colour the relevant picture, chances are it will be ‘happy’ most of the time initially and this is fine. You are helping them get into the habit of talking about feelings. Ask them to draw their face showing that emotion, use a mirror to help them see their face and have fun making different expressions. Then ask them to talk about it and draw a picture if they want to. If they don’t then just jot down what they have said. You want them to articulate their feelings and talking about it is a great way to do that! In time you will find your child becoming more open and talking more about their feelings. Please make sure you model this too e.g. ‘I feel sad today because it’s raining outside’. ‘I feel happy today because I talked to my friend’. Also make sure you verbalise their emotions too and give a reason. ‘I see you are feeling sad today because…’ ‘I see you are feeling angry today because…’ and so on. Great for home learning

A free self esteem poster for teens and young people.

These breathing exercise wheels are great as a prompt for trying different breathing techniques when feeling anxious. Pupils can use their favourite or try different ones.

This is a poem I wrote in our ELSA Groups and it is copyright to me and should not be altered in anyway. Put the poem near the worry monster so children are reminded what to do. Hopefully they will feel relieved once their worry is eaten by the monster. You can put this with any worry monster or even a monster that you have made out of an old tissue box.

This is an anger scale poster or visual for display or for showing pupils who struggle with anger. It could also be put up in classrooms or work areas.

Here are some positivity cards. There are 36 cards in the download. Print these out and cut them out and they could be used in lots of ways from discussions at circle time to a child picking one out of a jar and discussing.

This is a bee display pack with positive messages on. Included in the pack: 31 Hexagons with messages and blanks for your own messages A3 Bee for cutting out Clouds Large flowers 2 Banners One hive I would suggest a pale bluish background if you can so the yellow stands out. This can be made to look like the sky. The flowers could be cut out and put around the bottom or make a border of them by printing them smaller.

Written last night to hopefully help children who struggle with change. This is a BIG change. Clear, simple and hopefully reassuring.

This challenge has been made for Children’s mental health week on the theme of ‘EXPRESS YOURSELF’ It is a printable 5 day challenge with a drawing/writing task and a doing/talking task each day. There is a certificate for the end of the 5 days.

This is an anxiety scale that would be great displayed in your area or used as a talking point with your pupils. There is a scale with suggested vocabulary and some questions they can ask themselves to help cope with those feelings.

This isolation diary booklet for children will help nurture wellbeing. They may have to stay at home for 14 days to isolate after having contact with a positive Covid case. There are 10 daily challenges but these don’t take long to do. It is a matter of doing a bit of colouring, writing a word or number. If they can’t do them all then that is fine but the more they do the more likely they will be fully occupied on nurturing their wellbeing. There are a couple of differentiated pages so this is suitable for all age groups.

This self-esteem leaflet for parents has common sense advice to help them support their children at home. The leaflet is trifold so has six sides to them. They are to be printed duplex and instructions are given within the resource on how to do this using Adobe settings. The resource comes with a PDF to print where you can handwrite your contact details. It also has a file where you can edit the contact details in PowerPoint. The margins do need to be cut off all the sides so the leaflet folds properly. This leaflet covers ‘What is self-esteem?’ Strengths, talents and affirmations, advice on being specific with praise, a ‘CAN DO’ can activity, and simple goal setting.

This is an idea for an ELSA Christmas advent calendar and would be a fab activity for groups of children or your one to one children. Each child can colour one or two of the booklets. Some of them require faces drawing on first. They can just colour the image or they can colour the image and background. Depends how much time you have. There are 24 little foldable books. The child can colour the front of one of the books and then write or draw something inside. The pupil needs to understand that what they write or draw could be seen by anyone so they are writing for an audience. What could they write? The purpose of this advent calendar is some quiet mindful time and of course positivity. This activity is ideal for that last week in November, preparing for the 1st of December. Ideas for what you could work on: A Christmas memory Something you are grateful for An act of kindness Positive quotes about Christmas Self care and ways to look after yourself Positive characteristics Relaxing moments Positive affirmations A gift to give someone A joke or something to make you smile Compliments Once all the pieces have been coloured you can use the enclosed A3 sheet to stick the numbers on at random and close each book with a bit of bluetak. You can then use it as an advent calendar. Everyone has been involved and pupils are writing things for others to see so they need to think carefully what message they want to convey. Of course if you want to make it very simple, they could just draw a Christmas picture inside if they want to.

This ‘tell a story PowerPoint’ is perfect for delivering remotely or in the classroom with a whiteboard, laptop or IPAD. You need to be in slideshow mode to ensure the animations work correctly. Click ‘slideshow’ click ‘from beginning’ Please ensure you are using an up to date version of PowerPoint. The slide plays a video which you can stop and start. Some older versions may not work. When you click on the dice it rolls, when you click it again it stops at random. Roll the die 5 times to get your character, setting, emotion, prop and problem. The little squares can be clicked so you can remember what you have rolled. They will turn a blue colour. Then simply tell a story.

‘Today I heard this’ is a simple worksheet for children to write down things they hear that they don’t understand. Children hear things on the news, in newspapers, parents or other adults talking, social media or their friends and classmates. What they hear might not be true and they get themselves worried and upset for no good reason. Leave a stack of these out in the classroom so any misconceptions can be addressed quickly. Encourage children to ask a trusted adult about what they have heard. This resource has been inspired by the current Russia/Ukraine conflict.