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.
This resource is ideal for working one to one with a child. The red light is the negative emotion such as anger, frustration, fear, worry, sad and upset. The green light is the positive emotion such as happy, chilled, content, ok, calm, and confident. The amber/yellow light is all the things the child can do to help get from the red light to the green light. These are the tools.
Make sure you go through the resource with the child and decide which ‘tools’ they need to use or try.
Print and laminate this resource, Cut out the cards and keep in a little zip folder, Use either velcro or blu tak to stick the cards onto the base board.
If you need the cards to be bigger just print all of it onto A3 paper and laminate.
This download consists of a workbook and a set of strength cards with tips for using.
The aim of the workbook is to raise self esteem and allow children to recognise and identify their strengths and talents. It also looks at setting targets/goals and the planning involved in achieving them.
This is a set of 6 mats for using with playdough and emotions and feelings. Although my thoughts were that these would be fab for younger children, I am sure older children would enjoy using them too. Lots of open ended fun where children can be creative and think about colours.
This is a Halloween Pumpkin Scary words worksheet to use on the run up to Halloween. It is a great way to teach pupils about the synonyms for fear. There are so many words they can use and examples are given.
They can fill the pumpkin with words. They could use lots of colours perhaps in pumpkin colours to write the words to make it more interesting. Take every opportunity to discuss each word, what it means and when they might have felt like that.
This is an ‘unwind the mind transition mat. Perfect for the end of term when pupils needs some calm time. Pupils will enjoy the mindfulness of colouring and answering simple prompts.
There is a class version and a school version included in the pack. Print in A4 for older pupils and by using your print settings you can print on A3 for younger pupils.
Benefits of the unwind the mind transition mat
These offer 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.
Working on one of these mats offers 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.
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 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.
These Social and Emotional Support EXCEL assessments are perfect for an ELSA or anyone else who needs to track progress and impact of intervention.
It includes an excel file for tracking emotional skills, anxiety, social skills, growth mindset, independence, friendships and relationships, and self esteem.
There is also a pupil questionnaire.
These are so quick and easy to fill in. No calculating to do as it is all done for you. It is a matter of clicking a number for each statement.
They will work on a computer or laptop but NOT on an IPAD or phone and you must have EXCEL installed on your computer.
This download gives your school a licence to use these assessments. This means you only need to buy one for your school and everyone in your school can use it. The price listed is the price that needs to be paid for the school licence. Please do not add the TES school licence.
To be mindful of children of ALL ages who would benefit from an emotions check in I have created this resource. It is suitable for children as young as 3 or 4 and as old as 16 or even older.
The resources consists of:
14 base boards with different backgrounds
light skinned emotion faces
darker skinned emotion faces
emoji faces
small girl emotion character
small boy emotion character
Each child is given a Bingo base board and a set of counters. Cut up the word cards and read out the ‘I can’ statement. The child looks for that statement on their board and covers it with a counter. Continue until someone has a straight line horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
There is also a board for children to choose 3 ideas that they will try to help them relax and be more mindful. There is a set of image cards, image cards plus I can statement to print off and the child can stick them to their base board to take away at the end of the session.
Other ideas to use this game:
Matching pairs game with pictures
Matching pairs game with pictures and ‘I can’ statement
Print out the cards and put on a keyring as a reminder
As a stimulus for discussion
Set 2 is available from my Shop
These separation cards are perfect for touching base with your ELSA children. Once an intervention is finished it is important to keep contact with your children. Great relationships occur during ELSA interventions.
Some children do build a strong bond with the adult that they work with and these little cards will ensure that they know they are still being thought about and are not forgotten.
Of course these were created for the ELSA/Child relationship. These would also work well for Teacher/Child, TA/Child, Learning Mentor/Child or anyone who works either on a one to one basis or small group basis with children. Parent’s may even find them useful to pop in their child’s lunch box for example, or put one under their pillow to remind them about how amazing they are.
There are 22 different cards altogether
These cards can be printed on A4 card and there are 4 to each A4 sheet. Have a stack of them printed and ready to give out to your children. There is a mixture of ‘thinking of you’ type cards, ‘inspirational cards’ and even Birthday, Christmas cards.
Positive self-talk display pack for anxiety
Help children to change their thoughts when they feel anxious by displaying these thought bubbles in your classroom or area.
Print the banner as a poster in Adobe, you can choose how many sheets to print it over using the settings.
What is included?
How to change ‘Self-talk’ list
17 thought bubble suggestions
Positive ‘self-talk’ list
Positive ‘self-talk’ worksheet
‘When I feel anxious I can say’ banner
Emotions early years – Teaching children about emotions is the most fundamental thing you can do to ensure children become emotionally literate and will help them with that all important emotional regulation. This ‘EMOTIONS’ resource will help to do just that. The main part of the resource is a powerpoint show where you can introduce each emotion. This gives lots of opportunity to work on one emotion at a time and promotes lots of discussion.
This resource is aimed at early years but there are children that you may feel would benefit from this in KS1.
Children are learning to:
Recognise the emotion
Understand what it means
Label the emotion
Express the emotion
This resource consists of:
A powerpoint show with 20 emotions and an emotional register
A PDF of the show
20 ‘girl’ emotion sheets in black and white for colouring
20 ‘boy’ emotion sheets in black and white for colouring
20 ‘girl’ emotion fans
20 ‘boy’ emotion fans
This resource explores lots of different emotions to allow children to see the connection their thoughts have with their feelings, physical sensations and actions.
When you think happy thoughts it makes you feel better both physically and mentally and your actions are more positive as opposed to when you think worrying thoughts or angry thoughts.
This resource, through exploration of these thoughts and feelings will give you a base to help children change their thoughts and see how that makes them feeling and act differently.
There are 40 sheets altogether covering 20 emotions. Girl clipart and boy clipart is used so you can choose which to use with the child you are working with.
his activity will help teach children speaking and listening skills, so important for good social skills.
There is a Santa face, a plate template and 48 cookies with a range of Christmas items and also some emotion faces.
Cut out Santa’s mouth and stick the sheet to a box – I used an old Amazon packaging box but anything A4 sized will do. Cut out a selection of cookies and place them on the ‘Cookie plate’
This activity is fun for one to one working but two children could also use it together. You can start easy by saying ‘Feed Santa a yellow cookie’. ‘Feed Santa a pink cookie’. ‘Feed Santa a cookie with a present on it’, ‘Feed Santa a cookie with a bell on it’. Then move onto more accurate descriptions. ‘Feed Santa a yellow cookie with a Christmas tree on it’, ‘Feed Santa a pink cookie with a bow on it’. It could get even trickier with requests such as ‘Feed Santa a pink cookie with red lights on it’. There are also some ‘emotion cookies’ for work on emotions and listening skills. ‘Feed Santa a cookie with a happy face’, ‘Feed Santa a cookie with a worried face’.Children need to listen really well and follow the instructions.Children can also take turns to describe which cookie they want another child or you to feed to Santa.
This game looks at 16 different emotions including the basics of of happy, sad, angry, scared, surprised and disgusted. It is ideal for children from about 5 years old. My recommendation is that it is played with one or two children due to the space needed. Children take it in turns to throw a die and move that number of spaces on the base board. They will either land on a head, tummy or bottom. They take one of those cards and name the emotion. If it is a head they are seeing the facial expression. If it is a tummy they are seeing what someone might say who is feeling that emotion and if it is a bottom they are seeing the emotion word. The idea of the game is to build a complete monster.
This workbook can be made up to suit the child. Work on families can be very useful as it helps children to understand their identity and helping them to see the support network around them.
I have added sheets for different family members such as:
mum
dad
stepmum
stepdad
grandma
grandad
auntie
uncle
pet
sister
brother
stepsister
stepbrother
There are 23 sheets altogether in the pack.
If you require any more family members then please comment below and I can add them to the pack.
Bee Here Now! is a therapeutic story to help a child suffering from worries or anxieties. It also addresses bullying.
There is an accompanying workbook which will teach children some mindfulness techniques.
Also included is a set of ‘cloud’ feeling fans.
For more resources on anxiety check out Master Your Monsters
Anxiety and Worries group intervention
This is ideal to play with groups of up to 8 children. Children will learn about good listening skills through playing this game and it will constantly reinforce those essential skills.
Included in the pack:
One poster for display in the classroom/ELSA area
8 bingo boards with the images in different places
1 set of calling cards