This is ELSA Support’s Twinkle with respect intervention. It is written for children from approximately KS2 to KS3.
The Respect intervention is for a group of 6 children and is led by an ELSA or a teaching assistant. It covers emotions, relaxation, calming down techniques and learning objectives around respect. It runs for approximately 30-40 minutes, weekly for six weeks. There are lots of visuals, circle times and group activities along with lots of expression through drawing and writing.
Pupils will learn about emotions along with relaxation and coping skills each session. This knowledge and these skills will help them to become more emotionally literate. The coming together of a group fosters a sense of belonging and contributes towards higher self-esteem. Every opportunity should be taken to promote belonging and friendship.
This ‘Twinkle with respect intervention’ follows this structure
Welcome and emotional register– welcome the pupils to the group, go over the group rules and talk about how they feel today.
Warm up – This is an unrelated activity to warm the pupils up and break the ice.
Activity – this is where the pupils work on the learning objective.
Relaxation/Mindfulness – Teaches valuable relaxation and mindfulness skills.
Review of the session – pupils talk about their learning experience.
Resources – ready to print and go!
Group rules
Planning for 6 sessions
Certificate on completion
Feelings wheels
5 things you can see visual
I showed respect comic strip
Reach the sky visual
I showed disrespect comic strip
Fill your mind with colour visual
Respect and disrespect cards
Respect and disrespect examples worksheet
Scenario sort
List of characteristics
Passing through visual
Personal characteristic comic strip
Count those breaths visual
Design a poster task
Scenario consequences
Stand like a mountain visual
What I did or said
All the printable resources are included. You will also need a few other things such as colouring pens, pencils, a set of dominoes, and whiteboards and pens.
The lessons cover the following:
Learning objectives
Lesson 1
What is respect?
Lesson 2
What is disrespect?
Lesson 3
I can tell the difference between respect and disrespect
Lesson 4
What is self respect
Lesson 5
What is respect for our environment?
Lesson 6
What is respect for others?
This is ELSA Support’s Twinkle and shine self esteem intervention for young children. It is written for children from approx. 4 to 6 but could be used with 7 year olds too.
The Self-esteem intervention is for a group of 4 children and is led by an ELSA or a teaching assistant. It covers emotions, relaxation, calming down techniques and learning objectives around self-esteem. It runs for approximately 30-40 minutes, weekly for six weeks. There are also tips for areas of provision to continue or reinforce the learning done in the intervention group. There are lots of visuals, circle times and group activities along with lots of expression through drawing.
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 coming together of a group fosters a sense of belonging and contributes towards higher self-esteem. Every opportunity should be taken to promote belonging and friendship.
This Twinkle and shine self esteem intervention follows this 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 – This is a song they will sing right through every session to help them Twinkle and shine!
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. This also teaches them valuable coping/relaxation skills.
Areas of provision – these are suggestions to continue learning in class
Review of the session – pupils talk about their learning experience and fill in their star on the building block.
The pack contains the following:
Twinkle and shine planning – six sessions of fully resources planning with suggestions on what to say
Building blocks to self esteem – children will colour one star in at a time until they build their self esteem
Circle time song – Twinkle and shine sung to the tune of ‘Frere Jacque’
Certificate for the end of the sessions
I am special because I am different worksheet
Butterfly visual
My house
Paintpot visual
Family and friends game
Family and friends tree
Turtle shell visual
Things I am good at
Snowman visual
Proud cloud
Superhero pose visual
Grow happy feelings
Floating on a cloud visual
Circle time rules
Feelings wheel
Shout outs
Resources
This pack contains all the printable resources you will need for each lesson. There are other easy to find items needed and each lesson plan has a list of items you will need. These things are simple such as a mirror, and colouring pencils/pens.
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 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 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.
Reveal an emotion is a great warm up activity or just a fun introduction to discussion on emotions. It is a PowerPoint game so you do need to have PowerPoint installed on your computer. It is also editable in PowerPoint. This resource will work on IPAD with the PowerPoint app installed, however you will not be able to edit it on IPAD. The animations will not work in Google slides.
Pupils choose a ‘favourites’ question and answer it. Once answered they can click the square to reveal part of the picture. The aim of the game is to label the emotion that is hidden. There is a face, body and word attached to 8 different emotions.
Emotions covered are:
happy
sad
angry
scared
worried
confused
surprised
disgusted
There are 12 ‘favourites’ questions for each emotion which are all fully editable so you can use completely different questions should you wish. That makes a total of 96 questions provided to start you off!
Using as a PRINTABLE GAME
Should you want to print this and use it as a printable game.
Insert a blank slide into your PowerPoint.
Select all the squares from your chosen slide and click CUT.
Paste them into the blank slide.
Save as a PDF and print as normal onto A4 paper or card.
Cut up the squares and place over the image. The child would choose a card, answer it and remove it from the image.
This is a set of Emotion Dominoes for working on facial recognition, labeling emotions and general chat about emotions. You can use them as a traditional domino game or just match them as an activity.
There are 90 dominoes covering 12 different emotions/feelings/conditions.
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 includes 2 stories, a male version and a female version. The children are worried about going to school and don’t want to separate from their mum. This will help children suffering from School separation anxiety.
Included in the pack:
George doesn’t want to go to school Story PowerPoint (36 slides)
George doesn’t want to go to school Story PDF (36 pages)
Isla doesn’t want to go to school Story PowerPoint (36 slides)
Isla doesn’t want to go to school Story PDF (36 pages)
11 worksheets including – My morning routine, Weird things that happen to my body, A time I felt upset and cried, A time I felt angry, A time I felt scared, Delaying tactics, What if monsters, What if bubbles, A special memory, Fun times at school, My separation plan.
Booklet of questions to ask about the stories.
A pre and post anxiety scale
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 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 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.
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.
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 self esteem booster wheel will help children to reflect on their Strengths, talents and personal characteristics. There are so many things they are good at. A star stands out and shines brightly in the dark sky so thought I would use this for the centre of the wheel. There are two coloured versions and a black and white version. Pupils of any age can draw or write their strengths, talents or personal characteristics.
This gratitude jar will help children look for the positives in their lives. Gratitude according to Positive psychology is strongly linked to being happy. I have done lots of jar activities but think that gratitude is such an important one so deserves its own post.
This resources has a jar with and without lines. It also has a long list of suggestions/prompts to encourage children to reflect on things they are grateful or thankful for.
The jar without lines can be decorated with pictures, photographs and words. Make it colourful. It could also be used each day and the child adds just one thing for that day they are grateful or thankful for.
Of course you could make an actual jar with a lovely label and ask the child to fill it each day with things they are grateful for.
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 a huge pack of resources to help children’s wellbeing. You can glue the pocket into an exercise book and then add things to the pocket that you think the child will find helpful.
An alternative would be to put all the resources in a folder for the child.
Brilliant kit for home learning and helping your child’s wellbeing
Included in this pack:
Pocket colour
Pocket black and white
Emotional register
List of feeling words
Star breathing
Thermometer for scaling
Jar activity
Bucket of happiness
Proud cloud
Relax tips
Relax top four
Starfish story
I made a difference sheet
Star of strengths
List of positive characteristics
Sleep tips
Grounding activity
Simple emotional register
Worry tree
Helping hand
5 a day for wellbeing
My favourites
Grateful flower
Physical feelings
Helpful thoughts
My family
I wish
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
The child can have fun with this by colouring a section of the rainbow each day. I wonder what it will look like when finished. Which mood will be the most popular mood?
Great for home learning