Stress
This resource is about stress and coping strategies.
Some stress can be good because it can actually encourage and motivate you to work harder. When you get too much stress it can make you feel overwhelmed. Finding a balance is key to managing stress.
Stress bucket
The bucket is a metaphor for the body and the water is a metaphor for stress and coping strategies. This resource will lead the child through making a stress bucket and learning how to use it.
Levels of stress
Depending on the person, the level of water in the bucket may already be high due to past experiences. Stress entering the body isn’t necessarily filling up an empty bucket. It is adding to what is already there.
Every day stressors can soon overflow the bucket. There are always people and children who blow up over the slightest thing and this is probably because their stress is quite high all of the time.
Turning on the tap
Turning the tap on is a metaphor for letting out the stress and the best way to do this is through coping strategies. Coping strategies can be anything that the calms the person down from ‘calming breathing’ to ‘having a run’. It might also be things they enjoy doing, something that makes them feel happy. It can be individual to the person on what works for them. What relieves their stress?
Included in the pack
Stress scales. These could be used as bookmarks and taken away.
A4 poster that could be stuck to the wall as a reminder
24 additional supporting worksheets
An A4 bucket and pocket – pupils can put their stress INTO the bucket by using the pocket
Cloud and water for the craft
Different sizes of water droplets
Information sheets including examples of stressors, de-stressing ideas, physical body signs, and how it affects emotions and behaviour
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 is an anger support plan resource pack for older pupils who need help with anger. Perfect for ELSA SUPPORT. The plan is a useful reminder for them and others on what they need to look out for, do, or remember when their feelings of anger get too much. The resource is aimed at upper KS2 and Secondary. The plan is meant to be worked through with an adult. When pupils are angry they need that all important one to one or small group support. Helping pupils to manage their anger is the end result of all the work you do with them. The plan must be done with the worksheet pack .
Included in the anger support plan pack
Fillable form version of the support plan – pupils can fill this in on the computer
PDF form for printing and writing out by hand
9 worksheets working through all the points on the plan
3 information sheets with examples of thought challenging questions, assertiveness script and body signs
The 9 worksheets and activities included are:
Anger triggers
Body signs
What makes anger worse?
What do I need when feeling angry?
Where is my safe place?
Questions to challenge anger
What might distract me?
Who can I talk to?
What coping strategies can I use?
This is our Coping skills toolkit for emotional regulation. Perfect for ELSA Support. There is a handy little pouch and lots of resources that will help pupils with their emotional regulation.
Each pupil could be given one of these. Go through the cards and decide which emojis to put in and which calming cards to put in. Each pupil could have their own bespoke toolkit.
Included in the coping skills toolkit
24 Emoji face cards
33 Coping, calming and mindfulness cards
Worry tree card
Circle of control card
Affirmations card
Anger feeling words and physical sensations card
Sadness feeling words and physical sensations card
Anxiety feeling words and physical sensations card
Scared feeling words and physical sensations words
Self care for wellbeing card
All these resources are in one handy file so you can print what you need.
This EBSA workbook School difficulties has been created with valuable help from the members of the ELSA Support Facebook Group who provided some of the difficulties their pupils face. It relies on real life situations that pupils have found difficult about coming to school. ELSAs are often on the front line trying to help pupils back into school and to work on their difficulties.
The booklet is aimed from Year 3 to Year 6 but could also be used with Year 2 with support.
We also have EBSA workbook school thoughts and feelings and EBSA Workbook Coping with school worries on the website.
EBSA is Emotionally based school avoidance. Pupils who struggle to come to school or are non attenders. This might have an emotional cause or a mental health cause.
The activity consists of a sorting board, cards with suggestions, cards for pupils to write their own, an exploration board, a feelings board with scales and changes and what they want to happen to make things feel ok.
This activity will help pupils to identify what is bothering them at school and how to reduce that feeling by changing the situation.
Start by printing out the base board and cutting up the cards. Print out a blank sheet so the pupil can add their own if they want to. Help the pupil sort the cards between things that are ok, things they are unsure of and things that are not ok.
Once you have done that choose one of the things that are not ok and look at it further.
Help the pupil break it down to see if you can find out what the actual issue is.
Example might be ‘seating plan’ that is not ok.
What is it about the seating plan that is not ok? Is it that they are sitting next to someone they don’t like? Perhaps they can’t hear the teacher? Perhaps they are uncomfortable and there might be a draft or a bright light bothering them. They might prefer to be sitting with a friend. Perhaps someone copies off them or talks to them and they don’t like that. Try and help the pupil to break down the difficulty.
Once they have the root cause of their difficulty, help them to identify how it makes them feel. Can they put a name to that feeling? How big is that feeling?
There is a sheet for pupil voice to say what changes need to happen for them to be ok. They can write it or you can write it for them and they can tell you what needs to change. There is also a daily sheet for pupils to write down anything that they think of or that crops up for them.
There are also some additional supporting resources included in the pack
This is the first workbook in the EBSA Workbook Range.
This is an anger scale poster or visual for display or for showing pupils who struggle with anger. It could also be put up in classrooms or work areas.
This is a Feeling angry story pack for helping children who might need a little help with managing their anger.
Included in the Feeling angry story pack:
Front cover with space for a name and an 8 page story
24 Coping cards
The idea of this resource is to use the story and resources to help pupils understand how to deal with anger.
The story covers:
Triggers
Anger volcano
Body signs
Vocabulary around anger
Labelling the feeling
Scaling the feeling
Changing thoughts
Looking at something from a different perspective
Breathing techniques
Consequences of anger
It would be best to do a little at a time of the booklet so you can discuss it in detail and talk about the child’s experiences.
This is a Feeling worried story pack for helping children who might need a little help understanding worries.
Included in the Feeling worried story pack:
Front cover with space for a name and a three page story with images
32 coping strategy cards
The idea of this resource is to use the story and resources to help pupils understand how to deal with worries.
Self-esteem is about how we value and perceive ourselves.
There are 24 sheets in the teen self-esteem pack covering the following areas:
Top strengths – What are the pupil’s top strengths?
A strength you wish for – What do they aspire to? What strength would they like?
Using strengths – How do they use their strengths?
Strength spotter – Do they recognise strengths in others?
Affirmations – read
Affirmations – write
3 good things today – What three good things have happened today? This is a daily practice that will boost wellbeing and self-esteem
Steps to success – read
Steps to success – write
Self love
Make yourself proud �� What makes them feel proud?
Helping hand – How do they help others?
Fill your cup
Gratefulness – What are they grateful for?
Jar of positivity
Mood tracker – Track their mood daily
Selfie challenge
Social media feelings
A to Z of things that make me happy
A to Z of words to describe me
Wishes and dreams
Build relationships – What does a perfect friend look like? What qualities do they have?
Being assertive – read
Being assertive – write
This Rise and Thrive Teen self-esteem intervention is suitable for pupils in secondary. It may also be useful for mature year 6 pupils. It is a group intervention for approximately 6 pupils. It could be run whole class too.
Self-esteem refers to how a person views and values themselves. It involves having a positive opinion about your own worth, abilities, and qualities. When someone has healthy self-esteem, they feel confident, capable, and deserving of love and respect. Self-esteem is important because it influences how you perceive yourself, how you interact with others, how you handle challenges in life and your mental wellbeing.
An estimate of timings would be:
Review last time and check in 10 minutes
Activity 30 minutes
Review 5 minutes
Next time 5 minutes
Make sure you have 50 minutes to an hour to run the intervention.
There are six sessions to this intervention which will all help to raise self-esteem.
Boosters and drainers – pupils will explore what boosts self-esteem and what drains self-esteem
Strengths and talents -pupils will explore their strengths and talents
Challenging negative self-talk – pupils will learn how to reframe their negative dialogue
Building resilience – pupils will explore how to build their resilience by facing challenges and setbacks
Healthy and unhealthy relationships – pupils will explore relationships
Impact of self-care – pupils will learn the importance of self-care and the impact that has on self-esteem
Included in the Rise and Thrive teen self-esteem intervention:
Planning booklet with 6 fully planned sessions
Self-esteem scale for scaling at the beginning and end of the intervention
Lesson 1 – 36 Booster and drainer cards, Booster and drainer worksheet, emotions and self esteem visual
Lesson 2 – 40 strength cards, Building my strengths worksheet
Lesson 3 – Inner dialogue list for prompting, Challenging my inner dialogue worksheet
Lesson 4 – Resilience diary – front cover and one sheet to be copied multiple times
Lesson 5 – 8 prompts cards for relationships, Profile of a healthy relationship worksheet
Lesson 6 – Self care plan worksheet
This self-esteem leaflet for parents has common sense advice to help them support their children at home. The leaflet is trifold so has six sides to them. They are to be printed duplex and instructions are given within the resource on how to do this using Adobe settings. The resource comes with a PDF to print where you can handwrite your contact details. It also has a file where you can edit the contact details in PowerPoint.
The margins do need to be cut off all the sides so the leaflet folds properly.
This leaflet covers ‘What is self-esteem?’ Strengths, talents and affirmations, advice on being specific with praise, a ‘CAN DO’ can activity, and simple goal setting.
This is an anxiety scale that would be great displayed in your area or used as a talking point with your pupils.
There is a scale with suggested vocabulary and some questions they can ask themselves to help cope with those feelings.
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.
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 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 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 a Halloween Pumpkin Scary expressions worksheet to use.
This is fab for teaching about the emotion of fear. What sort of expressions do you make when you are scared about something? Ask the pupil to draw as many as they can on the pumpkins. Black and white worksheet included too!
This is a set of Scared Synonym Posters which are differentiated according to age. These all print as A3 posters.
There is one for early years, kS1 and KS2 upwards.
It is so helpful for pupils to learn vocabulary around feeling words. Being able say exactly how you feel with accuracy (Emotional granularity) can really help reduce the emotion felt.
This one is about being scared.
These would be great in your area, and a brilliant way for you to try and encourage your pupil to be more specific when they say ‘I feel scared’ You can help them to explore other words by using these posters.