Social stories use a patient and reassuring tone to teach children about social situations in a way that can be easily understood. Social stories are particularly useful for children on the autistic spectrum for whom social cues can be challenging and who often suffer anxiety if they do not know what to expect from a situation however social stories can also be useful for any child who is struggling to understand a situation or concept or needs help to understand a social skill or social cue, expectations, perspectives, common responses or is troubled about an upcoming event. This social story is about accepting that everyone makes mistakes at school when they are learning and that that is OK. It also covers some ways to overcome your mistakes. These books should be used over and over to reinforce the point so I would suggest either putting the pages into a display book or laminating and binding them. Clipart images courtesy of Kari Bolt.

A social story to encourage children to tidy up without fuss when their teacher instructs them to do so. The point of a social story is to use a patient and reassuring tone to teach children about social situations in a way that can be easily understood. Social stories can be useful for any child who is struggling to understand a situation or concept or needs help to understand a social skill or social cue, expectations, perspectives, common responses or is troubled about an upcoming event but social stories are particularly useful for children on the autistic spectrum for whom social cues can be challenging and who often suffer anxiety if they do not know what to expect from a situation. These books should be used over and over to reinforce the point so I would suggest either putting the pages into a display book or laminating and binding them. Clipart images courtesy of Kari Bolt Clip Art

List of 66 different circle time game ideas.

This is a self assessment for children about their social skills.  It may help you to see where they think they are at in terms of their own social skills.  Good to do before and after work on social skills or friendships. Clipart images courtesy of Kari Bolt Clip Art

Booklet of worksheets for children to write about their family.

Simple activity book for them to fill out information all about themselves Clipart images courtesy of Kari Bolt Clip Art

Book for children to fill in all about themselves including pages for photos and achievements.  This is particuarly useful for children with low self esteem or an insecure sense of self.

Fans for children to show you visually whether or not they are understanding their work

Thermometer showing increasing levels of anger and then with a space to think about what things make them feel that angry and how they can calm themselves down at different levels of anger. Clipart images courtesy of Kari Bolt Clip Art

If children learn to understand and recognise emotions both in themselves and others, learning to to identify and label them then this can ensure they will be better equipped to manage and regulate themselves when they experience strong emotions. If children are able to notice how they are feeling and then use strategies to calm themselves down then they are more likely to have successful friendships and to be able to manage set backs. This worksheet shows 6 blank faces with an emotion word written underneath and children are required to draw into the face what they think that emotion face looks like… Clipart images courtesy of Kari Bolt.

Worksheet in which children should think about their own emotions, times that they have felt certain emotions and the thoughts they had at that time. Clipart images courtesy of Kari Bolt Clip Art

Worksheet in which children should think about things that have made them angry in the past and what they could have done to avoid getting angry… Clipart images courtesy of Kari Bolt Clip Art

Checklist for children to look at and think about which calming strategies work best for them when in a hightened emotional state. Clipart images courtesy of Kari Bolt Clip Art

Worksheet in which children should think about ways in which they have previously dealt with anger and better ways that could deal with their anger in the future. Clipart images courtesy of Kari Bolt Clip Art

When children are non-verbal or have trouble communicating it can be frustrating and difficult for them. These visual aids for basic communication can help children to express their needs and can help to prevent problematic behavior that may arise as a result of communication barriers. This mat is designed to help children express how they are feeling. Emotions shown on the mat are: happy, sad, angry, confused, scared, poorly, excited, tired, worried and surprised. Clipart images courtesy of Kari Bolt Clip Art

Classroom display showing circle time rules Clipart images courtesy of Kari Bolt Clip Art

These behavior prompts can be used in class to easily instruct children without words. This can helpful during whole-class teaching when you do not want to interrupt the flow of teaching and can be particularly helpful for visual learners. Included are 6 cards: Good listening Good looking Good sitting Hand up to speak Well done! Time out

Cards showing people that may touch a child and types of touch e.g. tickle, hand shake, kiss etc. Cards can be used to instigate and encourage discussions with children about when and how it is and is not appropriate for people to touch them. They can also be useful in discussions with children who are touching others inappropriately. Set includes 10 cards with types of touch: high five Pat on the back hand shake Arm on shoulders Kiss hug Tickle Whisper in ear hold hands sit on lap Also 10 people cards: Parents Doctor Teacher Stranger Sibling Grandparents Friend Classmate Aunt or uncle Family friend Clipart images courtesy of Kari Bolt.

If children learn to understand and recognise emotions both in themselves and others, learning to to identify and label them then this can ensure they will be better equipped to manage and regulate themselves when they experience strong emotions. If children are able to notice how they are feeling and then use strategies to calm themselves down then they are more likely to have successful friendships and to be able to manage set backs. These fans each contain a different emotion face and word. They can be used for activities and teaching about emotions or alternatively can be used to support non verbal children to express their emotions. There are 15 fan pieces with the following emotions included: happy, sad, scared, tired, worried, excited, angry, disappointed, silly, jealous, confused, poorly, disgusted, surprised and embarrassed. Clipart images courtesy of Kari Bolt Children’s Illustrator.

Circle time questions to start conversations and get children talking. 56 different questions cards.