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.
This is a memory wheel for transition and can be used for any age group.
Pupils can draw their memories of the past year. This offers a multitude of benefits for their personal and emotional development. This creative exercise allows children to visually express their experiences, enhancing their ability to recall and articulate important moments. By drawing their memories, pupils engage in a reflective practice that fosters self-awareness and helps them appreciate their achievements and growth over the year.
Artistic expression through drawing can also be therapeutic, providing a safe outlet for pupils to process and communicate their emotions. This can be particularly beneficial for those who might find it difficult to express their feelings verbally. Additionally, the memory wheel serves as a visual diary, capturing a snapshot of their year that they can look back on, reinforcing positive experiences and milestones.
Sharing their memory wheel for transition with peers and teachers can strengthen social connections and build a sense of community. It encourages pupils to listen to others’ experiences, fostering empathy and understanding. The activity can boost confidence as children take pride in their artwork and the memories they’ve chosen to highlight.
Overall, the memory wheel activity is a powerful tool for promoting emotional well-being, enhancing memory retention, and encouraging a positive outlook on personal growth and achievements.
This intervention is for a group of six girls and is led by an ELSA or teaching assistant. It covers emotions, relaxation, calming down techniques and learning objectives around assertiveness for girls. It runs for approximately 40-60 minutes, weekly for six weeks. Children will learn about emotions during each session and will also learn relaxation and calming techniques through the ‘relaxation time’. This knowledge and these skills will help them to become more emotionally literate. The warm-up games teach a variety of skills such as co-operation, team work, taking turns, communication skills, friendship, self-esteem and confidence. The coming together of a group fosters a sense of belonging and therefore raises self-esteem. Every opportunity should be taken to promote belonging and friendship.
The age range for this intervention would be approximately year 3 upwards and should be aimed at quiet, shy girls who lack confidence and self-esteem.
The pack contains the following:
Planning booklet with 6 fully planned sessions
Circle time rules posters
Shout out reflection sheet
Feelings wheel
Certificate
Assertiveness list
Passive list
Aggressive list
Assertiveness comic strip
Passive comic strip
Aggressive comic strip
Assertive communication poster
Strengths shield
Strength cards
Problem cards
Target setting sheet
Visuals for mindfulness
This is a body sensations resource pack containing lots of ways to explore body sensations linked to emotion.
Included in this resource pack:
4 different skin coloured body shapes (A3 size) and 1 in black and white, each showing a blank box for writing a feeling word and a scale to scale how big the feeling is.
48 image cards
96 sensation describing word cards
48 parts of the body cards
36 colour cards for describing what colour your emotions are
Condensed A4 mat for discussion about feelings, sensations , sensation words and colours.
A blank sheet for adding any other sensations, body parts, colours that might be needed.
Visual representation of sizes for younger children.
Purpose of the resource
To identify body feelings and sensations.
How do we feel in our bodies when we are anxious, angry, worried, happy, scared etc?
Do we feel tingly, numb, wobbly, trembly, hot, empty and so on?
This resource is a way for children to tell you how they are feeling in their bodies. The image cards can be used for children to place on the body shape where they are feeling this sensation.
The words could be used instead of the images in the same way. They could also be used together.
This resource is set up for A3 printing. Laminate all of the pieces so you can use it over and over for different children. This is suitable for children of all ages.
If laminated the child could also use a dry wipe pen to draw facial expressions associated with the feeling they have. They can mark off on the scale how big their feeling is. There are some cards at the end of this pack with some visual representations of big, medium and small for very young children.
If the child is unsure of body parts spend a little time going through the cards and placing them where they go on the body. You could make this a bit of a game. ‘Where is the scalp?’ The child can put the word where they think the scalp should be. What feelings do you get in your scalp if you are angry? They might pick the fire or pick hot. They might pick prickly or a picture of a brush. There are so many ways to use this resource with children to talk about their feelings.
You could even use it as an interactive display. It is A3 size so you could have the body on the wall with the cards around the body so pupils could pick one of the picture or word cards and place it with a bit of bluetak onto the body where they feel that emotion.
This is such a versatile resource and I think you will use it a lot.
Included in the Thankful Tree pack is *Giant tree with sky background *72 leaves with vocabulary *Banner *Black and white leaves for writing *Leaves in a variety of shapes and colours for display.
The tree is in PDF format and if you use Adobe to open it, then you can choose any size you like and piece together the pieces. I have included one in the Thankful Tree pack that is ready to print on A4 pieces.
This will promote a positive attitude and help increase happiness. Gratefulness or thankfulness is a fabulous habit to get into and helps to change that mindset.
This growth mindset intervention can be run as a whole class, or group. The lessons will take 40 mins to an hour and are suitable for children from about 7 years old.
Learning Objectives:
M – I understand how making MISTAKES can help me learn.
I – I understand how seeing success can INSPIRE me.
N – I understand the importance of the words ‘NOT YET‘.
D – I understand what it means to be DETERMINED.
S – I can celebrate SUCCESS and understand how that makes me feel.
E – I understand that EVERYONE is different but that EVERYONE has the potential to succeed.
T – I know how important it is to THINK positively and have a ‘can do’ attitude to learning.
Included in the pack:
7 lessons, each corresponding to a letter from ‘MINDSET’.
‘A mistake that made my brain sparkle and grow’ worksheet.
‘Who inspires you? Who is your hero?’ worksheet.
‘My Goal’ worksheet
‘Questionnaire’ and ‘Bookmarks’.
‘What have you been successful at?’ worksheet.
2 different puzzle pieces
Everyone is different poster
Display heading
Rubbish bin/Treasure chest
Positive/negative cards for sorting
Mindset certificate
7 Posters 'Mindset'
This intervention is written for a group of six children and is led by an ELSA or teaching assistant. It covers recognising, labelling and expressing the six basic emotions. It is written for children from 4-7 but could also be useful for children with autism or special needs. The sessions last for approximately 40 to 60 minutes.
The intervention covers the six basic emotions of happy, sad, angry, scared, surprised and disgusted.
A pre and post assessment is filled in by the class teacher at the beginning and end of the intervention. The assessments we use are enclosed with this pack. These assessments cover other areas of emotional literacy and social skills but are a good indicator of any other problems that the child may have. Please choose which ones you want to use. You may have other generic assessments that you use but it is important to try and track progress however you choose to do it. Often when a child takes part in this type of intervention other skills are developed too. For example social skills, sharing, co-operating, teamwork and self-esteem to name a few. It is a good idea to keep a book, like a learning journey to stick the children’s work in. This is a brilliant way of sharing with parents and teachers things that the children are doing with you.
All the paper resources are included in this pack. You will need a large sheet of paper for week 6 and a cuddly teddy and hoops for week 2.
Learning objectives are as follows:
I can recognise and name the six basic emotions
I can understand the reasons why I might feel different emotions
I can give examples of when I felt happy and sad
I can give examples of when I felt angry and scared
I can give examples of when I felt surprised and disgusted
I can tell you about some of the physical sensations I get when I feel an emotion
The word affirm means to ‘state something that is true’. Affirmation cards have simple but positive messages that help to develop a person’s sense of self. When used regularly it is hoped that the positive message will be absorbed and a person will become more positive in their outlook in life. They will really begin to believe the statement that they are working on. The message needs to be realistic and very simple.
Although I have called these ‘ADULT’ they really are for anyone. My other cards have characters on them and these are character free.
All these cards begin with the words ‘I am’ and are very simple but achievable statements for all.
Included in the pack:
25 Affirmation cards – 4 to an A4 page
25 Affirmation cards – 2 to an A4 page
25 Affirmation cards – 1 to an A4 page
Blank Affirmation cards – 4 to an A4 page
Tips booklet
These Flipbooks are brilliant for working with children. Each flipbook concentrates on different areas.
Included in the pack
18 emotion books which use our senses to describe each emotion
An ‘About me’ book
3 books dealing with negative feelings such as anger, anxiety and sadness
A book dealing with ‘Restorative Practice’
A book on increasing happiness
24 flipbooks all together.
Included in the pack
A banner - use your Adobe printer setting to print it as large as you like
A Poster - set for A3 printing
A star and a rainbow
Star and rainbow cards for the children to write on.
This bingo game is great for boosting self-esteem. Every child has strengths and talents but sometimes they find it hard to see that. This game will help them to understand some positive character traits. They will learn new vocabulary and will explore each strength and talent.
Strengths covered are:
sociable
energetic
focused
patient
co-operative
calm
funny
positive
respectful
Included in the pack:
9 bingo boards
calling cards
strength sheet
9 comic strip strengths worksheets
A great way to learn about emotions.
What it looks like, synonyms, what you might say, what you might think, what causes it and how to cope with it.
20 Emotions covered and a blank template to use as a worksheet so you can write and draw other emotions.
This truth or lie game has 64 cards which are for sorting between something that is true and something that is a lie or that is false. There is a game board to make it more exciting and also for working with a group of children. There are a few supporting worksheets. Please check out the images for more information.
Children tell lies for lots of reasons. Before working on those it is important that children know the difference between a lie and the truth.
This resource is a fun way of working with emotions. Each emoji represents a letter of the alphabet and pupils need to break the code and work out what all the words are. The words in this pack are all emotion/feeling words. Their are 16 base emotions/feelings with synonyms of that emotion or feelings. This is perfect for year 6s who are returning to school in June. Also great for KS2 children who are still at home.
The puzzles are enjoyable to do. Pupils will feel a sense of achievement breaking the codes which will help raise self esteem. Getting involved with puzzles is great for relaxation and mindfulness.
You can work on synonyms of emotions by using these puzzles. Pupils will learn new vocabulary for expressing their feelings.
Brilliant for home learning.
The pack contains:
16 code breaker sheets
The alphabetic code
A sheet for making their own code
A sheet for making their own messages
Answer sheets
This is an anxiety booklet to help children understand their anxiety and find ways to cope with it.
There are 30 pages in the booklet which covers scaling, fight/flight, vocabulary, the worry tree, real worries as opposed to hypothetical worries, worry plans, breathing techniques, mindfulness, coping strategies, negative thinking, self talk and much more.
There are pages for pupils to show what they have learnt so far and there is a quiz at the end of the booklet. There is also a diary to take away to log any worries. This is offered in two different ways to cater for different needs. It also has a monster scale and some mandala colouring sheets.
This Autumn wellbeing pack of worksheets will be perfect for the Autumn term.
Included in the pack is a PDF with 28 activities/worksheets with a social and emotional theme from mindful colouring to poetry writing. There is also a PowerPoint for introducing whole class work. Basically you can show the activity on the whiteboard with this PowerPoint. I know many of you are working with large groups or classes right now. This is suitable for many age groups.
This is a set of 56 anxiety cards with lots of helpful tips on how to manage anxiety. These can be used with children from KS2 upwards.
There are 8 cards to an A4 sheet of paper.
Use them as a focus for your sessions or just to read through and discuss with your pupils.
This is a friendship potion activity for young children. It is visually appealing with clear images to help the pupils understand the words.
Make up the cauldron and bin with the pockets. Cut out and laminate the bubble circles. Simply help the pupil sort out those good qualities for a friend and put them into the cauldron to make their friendship potion. All the others go into the bin. Discuss each bubble as you look at it to ensure understanding and relate to the pupil’s experience where possible.
When you have finished the sorting activity ask the pupil to decorate the body shape to look like a friend and put all the bubbles around the body shape to reinforce ‘What makes a good friend’.
Included in the friendship potion activity pack:
Cauldron with pocket
Bin with pocket
18 positive bubbles for friendship
18 negative bubbles for friendship
Body sheet
This is an ELSA Secondary Anger pack of worksheets to help you support pupils who have anger issues. These are all in black and white for easy and cost effective printing. This is suitable for upper KS2, secondary pupils and adults.
We also have another useful worksheet pack for secondary pupils
Included in the elsa secondary anger pack
Anger firework activity (11 sheets) This will help explain what happens when an anger episode is triggered
The fight or flight response information
Body response to anger information
Useful coping strategies information
Thoughts information
Self talk information
Anger iceberg information and worksheet
Anger triggers weekly diary
Anger triggers daily diary
Weekly thought diary for reframing thoughts
Daily thought diary for reframing thoughts
CBT cycle info
CBT cycle worksheet
Challenging negative thinking worksheet
Reflection time
Anger synonyms
You could put these into a pack for your pupils and make workbooks according to their needs.
26 sheets in the pack
‘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.