Children’s Mental Health Week is from 4th to the 10th February 2019 and the topic is Healthy: inside and out.
There are 104 question cards entitled ‘Looking after YOU’ covering physical, social, mental and emotional wellbeing. These cards are brilliant for a warm up before starting your session or could be used as a teaching or discussion point.
The main purpose was for the child to identify different levels of anger. So for example, some things might annoy you, some things make you mad and some things make you furious. I chose just those three to make it as simple as possible. The members of the group came up with all these real life scenarios which I have put together as cards. I also included a sorting sheet. Obviously what makes one child mad might be just annoying for another child. What makes one child furious might make another child mad. You need to go through the scenarios with the child and find out their levels of anger. Each child would be unique in how they would react to each situation.
Target would be – To identify different levels of anger
This intervention is written for a group of four children and is led by an ELSA or teaching assistant. It covers emotions, relaxation and lessons around making changes and setting targets for the new year. It runs for approximately 40 minutes.
Children will work together in a group which will give them a sense of belonging. This helps to raise self-esteem.
All my interventions follow a similar structure:
Welcome and emotional register– welcome the children to the group, go over the circle time rules and talk about how they feel today.
Warm up – children really respond better if they have had chance to warm up and feel at ease by playing a game or activity. This may or may not be related to the learning objective.
Activity – this is where the children work on the learning objective.
Relaxation/Mindfulness – Children are more ready to go back to class if they are relaxed and calm.
Review of the session – Children talk about their learning experience and perhaps fill in a pupil feedback form on the session.
The paper resources for this intervention come in booklet form. Make one up to show the children at the start of your intervention but don’t make their booklets up straight away. Some weeks has a challenge for them to take away with them. Make their booklets up for their last session so they can take them away as a reminder. You can collect any evidence you require each week up to that point.
There are no assessments for this intervention.
Learning objectives are:
I can tell you about some of my happiest memories last year
I can tell you about some of my proudest moments last year
I can tell you about some things that I want to get better at next year
I can tell you about some habits I want to change.
I can make a New Year resolution for something I want to get better at
I can make a New Year resolution for something I want to stop doing
This Healing Steps Grief intervention covers six sessions and is written for a ‘Grief Group’ but also including planning for delivering to one child.
This intervention is written for a group of four pupils (but there is planning for one to one working) and is led by an ELSA or teaching assistant. It covers emotions, relaxation and support around grief. This is an ‘activity’ based intervention and the stages of grief are not covered. It is meant for pupils to support each other and take part in activities to allow them to share their feelings and make themselves feel more able to cope. The pupils will take one step at a time and heal a little bit along the way. Animals will also be covered in this intervention because quite often the first loss a pupil experiences is a pet.
Pupils will work together in a group which will give them a sense of belonging. It will also help them support each other. Sometimes it is easier to deal with your grief if you know that others are also experiencing similar feelings to you. The sessions will last for approximately one hour.
All my interventions follow a similar structure:
Welcome and emotional register– welcome the pupils to the group, go over the circle time rules and talk about how they feel today.
Warm up – pupils really respond better if they have had chance to warm up and feel at ease by playing a game or activity.
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.
Review of the session – pupils talk about their learning experience and colour in the appropriate ‘step’ at the back of their booklets. There might also be something to find out for next time or something to think about or do.
The paper resources come in booklet form. There are also some additional templates and you will need some bubbles for each child, drinking straws and water or juice, whiteboard, colouring pencils, scissors and glue.
Included in the pack:
Group planning for six sessions
Individual planning for six sessions
Pupil Memory Booklet
Pocket template
Flower template
Memory cube and accompanying sheet
Relaxation cube and accompanying script
Circle time rules
Memory Questions
Self care prompts
Emotion fans
Feelings of Loss poster
Jigsaw Resource Pack
Includes:
5 banners
an example lesson plan
10 plain coloured jigsaw pieces
10 coloured jigsaw pieces with vocabulary
15 jigsaw templates and suggestions list on how to use them
There are 24 advent mindfulness colouring sheets for the run up to Christmas, each one highlights a ‘Christmas quote’. These will be fab for colouring in when chatting in ELSA Sessions. Most of them have an important message and work can be done on that message so the child can get a deeper understanding.
This ‘Finish the Emoji’ resource will combine emotional literacy with symmetry and art. There are full page mats where children need to finish the emoji face and then name the emotion or to take it a bit further there are worksheets with prompts. 14 emotions are covered with this resource.
Use this activity in the following ways:
Warm up or icebreaker at the beginning of your sessions
Emotional register at the beginning of your sessions
In numeracy lessons when working on numbers 1-10
With SEN children who need a bit more help with emotions or numbers to 10
In early years classrooms as independent activities
To learn about the 6 emotions included
This pack contains:
6 girl jigsaws numbers 1-5
6 boy jigsaws numbers 1-5
6 girl jigsaws numbers 1-10
6 boy jigsaws numbers 1-10
Grab yourself a lovely little set of emotion fans. These will appeal to young children especially if they like unicorns! Learning about emotions should start as soon as children begin to speak and even before. As an adult or parent this should be modeled to children constantly because they do learn from you. Explain to the child that they feel sad because … and explain why they might be feeling sad. Show children that emotions come and go all the time. Show them how you deal with your emotions so they are set a good example.
This is such an important social skill. This covers reasons why we might need to say sorry and looks at physical hurt, non verbal hurt, verbal hurt and hurt caused by our actions. It also looks at the 4 part apology.
The powerpoint makes this available to whole classes or groups.
This resource pack contains the following:
Powerpoint show – you can use this for individual, group or whole class. When used for individual, you can act as the partner.
PDF of the show – so you can print it out if you need to or if you don’t have a computer or Whiteboard to work on.
A poster and worksheet pack – please see the example images.
This resource is to help children understand the emotion of ‘fear’ and was requested from a Reception teacher. Fear is one of the core emotions and is quite an important emotion to teach. The other core emotions are ‘sadness, disgust, surprise, anger, and happiness’. This resource is suitable for EYFS and KS1. It may even be suitable for older children with limited emotional literacy.
Included in the pack:
Scared Sophie Powerpoint Show (10 slides)
Scared Sophie PDF of the show should you not have a computer to work on
Scared Sophie Poem
Scared Sophie Poster
Scared Sophie Supporting worksheets (5 worksheets)
This resource is to help children understand the emotion of ‘anger’ and was requested from a Reception teacher. Anger is one of the core emotions and is quite an important emotion to teach. The other core emotions are ‘sadness, disgust, surprise, happiness, and fear’. This resource is suitable for EYFS and KS1. It may even be suitable for older children with limited emotional literacy.
Included in the pack:
Angry Adam Powerpoint Show (9 slides)
Angry Adam PDF of the show if you want to make this up as a booklet to read through rather than use a computer.
Angry Adam Poem
Angry Adam Poster
Angry Adam Supporting worksheets (4 worksheets)
There are:
14 Posters with funny quotes coloured background
12 Posters with Emotion words – Coloured background
12 Posters with Emotion words – White background
12 Fans colour background
12 Fans white background
12 Emotion cards coloured background with text
12 Emotion cards white background with text
12 Emotion cards coloured background without text
12 Emotion cards white background without text
This is a huge pack of resources for children to learn how to rid themselves of negative thoughts through mindfulness type exercises. There are 3 zipped files included in the download due to the size of the resource.
The children are asked to think about an animal, then to stop thinking about the animal. This will demonstrate how it is difficult to stop thinking about something just by telling yourself not to think about it. They are then asked to do an exercise to demonstrate how that will rid them of the animal. If the animal comes back they do the exercise again.
There are:
24 A5 cards to print
24 Powerpoint shows for each exercise
24 PDFs of the Powerpoint shows
Supporting worksheets – 3 main sheets but offered with colour, black and white, with and without lines.
This intervention is written for a group of four children and is led by an ELSA or teaching assistant. It covers emotions, relaxation and lessons around transition either into the next class or new school. It runs for approximately 40 minutes. It is pitched at junior aged children but would work for year 2 to year 3 too.
Children will work together in a group which will give them a sense of belonging. This helps to raise self-esteem.
All my interventions follow a similar structure:
Welcome and emotional register– welcome the children to the group, go over the circle time rules and talk about how they feel today.
Warm up – children really respond better if they have had chance to warm up and feel at ease by playing a game or activity. This may or may not be related to the learning objective.
Activity – this is where the children work on the learning objective.
Relaxation/Mindfulness – Children are more ready to go back to class if they are relaxed and calm.
Review of the session – Children talk about their learning experience and perhaps fill in a pupil feedback form on the session.
The paper resources for this intervention come in booklet form. Make one up to show the children at the start of your intervention but don’t make their booklets up straight away. Some weeks has a challenge for them to take away with them. Make their booklets up for their last session so they can take them away as a reminder. You can collect any evidence you require each week up to that point.
There is a simple assessment for this intervention.
This pack includes
Planning booklet – please read this first
Emotion fans
Circle time rules
Relaxation booklet
Pupil booklet
Assessment
Certificate
Pupil feedback
20 emotions covered in this resource pack.
Simple folds make this unique and exciting for children.
Children will learn to identify the facial expression, what makes them feel that emotion, physical signs of the emotion and synonyms of the emotion.
This is a compliments game where children have to think of many things they can compliment not just appearance. Appearance is included but there are so many things they can compliment as well. This resource will help them to think of all those other things too.
Included in the pack:
A4 gameboard
A3 gameboard
60 Scenarios to help children think about other things they can compliment
Winner’s certificate
Player’s watches
Supporting worksheets (8)
This journal will address many areas of a pupils’ well-being. It is suitable for KS1 and possibly Lower KS2. 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
Strengths
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, which have certain elements change.
Independent journal sheet should pupils want to continue
Worry garage
Positives Jar
2 emotion trackers – Popcorn, and Heart mosaic
End of week assessment
Bullet journal sheet for creating
Weekly review
4 front covers to choose from
Name one thing 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.